London Marathon: BBC Sport looks back in order to move forward with coverage of one of sport's most joyful events No remote production workflows this year - but under consideration for 2022 race By Will Strauss, Editor
Friday, October 1, 2021 - 09:01
Print This Story
BBC Sport senior producer Micky Payne on the Mall during the 2020 London Marathon
Ahead of this weekend's London Marathon, SVG Europe caught up with BBC Sport senior producer Micky Payne to find out how the race coverage will be produced now that COVID restrictions have been eased in the UK.
The London Marathon is one of sport's most joyous televised events.
From the potential 50,000 runners pounding 26.2 miles through the streets of London (plus another 50,000 virtual runners doing the same distance elsewhere around the UK) and one of the best elite fields outside the Olympics to the iconic landmarks on the course and the countless human interest stories raising millions of pounds for charity. It is an event that provides hope in ways that other sports and tournaments don't.
Thanks to COVID-19, last year's race was reduced to an Elite level-only race, albeit, with thousands of virtual runners. The 2021 Marathon will be much more familiar though and not just in terms of route and the number of runners.
BBC Sport is the current UK rights holder, as it has been since the first London Marathon took place back in 1981. It is also the host broadcaster, providing both the domestic and international cuts. Its coverage, and the OB set-up, will also be a hark back to 2019, as senior producer Micky Payne (pictured above) explained to SVG Europe in the week before the event.
The Marathon is a big production effort and for this year, with the uncertainty around COVID, and the uncertainty around absolute confirmation of what the race would look like, we've decided to keep the model from 2019 and then review it after this year.
We are pretty much lifting and shifting from 2019, he acknowledges. So, for this particular year, and we're going to review it after this year, we've still got exactly the same model. We've got six outside broadcasts: The Start, Cutty Sark, Tower Bridge, Canary Wharf, Blackfriars and The Finish. Each has its own sets of cameras, directors and reporters.
That is supplemented by six RF cameras on motorbikes two on each elite race: wheelchairs, women and men. So, a bike with the lead group and a bike to follow and track whatever the story is behind the leaders. And then two helicopters help to join the dots between the OBs for the elite race. Once the elite races are finished, we concentrate on the masses properly with those six OBs and our reporters.
While BBC Sport is looking backwards in order to move forwards, this approach hasn't been without its trials.
[The challenge] is trying to remember and relearn what we did!, he says, only partly in jest. In the two and a half years [since the last full Marathon] there's obviously been a lot of technological change that's been exacerbated by the lockdown, especially around remote production.
Nothing will be done remotely this year, he adds. But that might change in 2022, assuming the BBC holds on to the rights for the race. Its current contract expires this year.
The Marathon is a big production effort and for this year, with the uncertainty around COVID, and the uncertainty around absolute confirmation of what the race would look like, we've decided to keep the model from 2019 and then review it after this year.
It feels like there are a couple of aspects of it, where we could do a bit of remote stuff, which would help both the carbon footprint and push the green initiatives and it might help with some costs long term.
Although Payne is keen to embrace remote, there are caveats especially from an editorial perspective.
Because it's such a big event, if the main editor or producer is back in Salford, doing the main output remotely, it could definitely work technically, but editorially you feel so far away, he says.
Remote production will work. It's just getting your head around it and letting go of the hands-on control you would normally have.
All those weekend conversations with your presenter, with your reporters with the marathon people, with the OBs. Instead of having it face-to-face, or at least in the same sort of area, you would be doing it on the phone or over TalkBack. And it would be quite unsatisfactory, from a purely personal level.
We might have to do that though because that is the way things are going. It will work. It's just getting your head around it and letting go of the hands-on control you would normally have.
Feeling like you are part of the race, and relaying that to viewers back home, is also harder when you are many miles away, he acknowledges.
I think particularly when you've got thousands of people back on the streets doing a run, plus thousands on the street in certain parts of the country supporting them and cheering them on. That's such a huge part of what we're trying to get back into showing and reflecting. Being there is all part of that. You can feel it much more. I think, coming back after two and a half years, that's important for this year.
Race coverage The London Marathon is very much a game (or race) of two halves: the elite; and then the charity fundraising and human interest.
Payne picks up the story: So, the wheelchairs are first off and that has got good domestic interest and strong international interest. You've got David Weir, who has been there forever so we cover that with the OBs and with two motorbikes. One goes with the lead men, one goes with the lead women.
We give that all the build-up and the coverage that it needs. But then the complication comes at 9am. The women's rac
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
29/05/2026
The days are getting longer, the temperatures are rising, and playlists are filling up for the season. With summer around the corner, Spotify's global edito...
29/05/2026
New retro-inspired MPC announced
There are few devices that have gained the status held by Akai Pro's MPC range, and in recent years, the company have s...
29/05/2026
Save up to 30 on acclaimed titles
Following a successful launch at Superbooth 2026, Bjooks have revealed that they will be continuing the Kickstarter campa...
29/05/2026
Binaural monitoring application improved
Genelec have just released an update that brings some powerful new features to their HRTF-based binaural headphone ...
29/05/2026
6 June 2026 at SAE Institute, London, UK
IMSTA FESTA 2026 is almost upon us, with some of the biggest names in pro-audio set to descend upon SAE Institute i...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, died April 12, 2026, at his home in...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Comparing 5 AI Video Enhancers for Restoring Old Video Quality
Kate Luvis May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Digitizing VHS, MiniDV, and other legacy formats doe...
29/05/2026
Studio Hamburg Builds New Post Pipeline with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Workflow replaces a patchwork of legacy tools...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
At the Intersection of Music and Dance, an Epic Collaboration Boston Conservatory musicians and dancers found creative parallels in their recent performance o...
29/05/2026
Something fundamental has shifted in how people consume media. Audiences aren't abandoning television or radio content; they're just expanding how, wher...
29/05/2026
Youtube exclusive special drops today
Watch now
UKTV today announces another e...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
The Official Trailer of Physical 100 Italy, on Netflix From Se...
29/05/2026
At just 20 years old, Sean Melia from Summerhill Co. Meath has been revealed as the winner of Super Garden 2026. Sean is the youngest ever contestant and winner...
29/05/2026
Experimental HIV vaccine achieves a long-sought goal In a first for the field, all non-human primates given a new series of vaccines generated antibodies capabl...
28/05/2026
Thomsons Climate Crisis Toolkit is already being put to work, helping journalist...
28/05/2026
FOX Sports' MLB coverage dominated the night at the 47th Annual Sports Emmy ...
28/05/2026
One of the most memorable postseasons in baseball history would have had no memo...
28/05/2026
NBC's Sunday Night Football is among the most-decorated and most-watched pro...
28/05/2026
The 2026 Sports Emmys marked a watershed moment for Prime Video Sports. After bu...
London Marathon: BBC Sport looks back in order to move forward with coverage of one of sport's most joyful events No remote production workflows this year - but under consideration for 2022 race By Will Strauss, Editor 
