No Stranger to Ice: Host Broadcaster Sunset+Vine on Pressure and Planning for the 2026 ISU European Figure Skating Championships

No stranger to ice: Host broadcaster Sunset Vine on pressure and planning for the 2026 ISU European Figure Skating Championships By Heather McLean

Monday, January 12, 2026 - 16:38

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Sunset Vine is sliding into position to be the host broadcaster for the 2026 ISU European Figure Skating Championships on behalf of British Ice Skating (BIS).

Taking place in Sheffield, UK from 13 to 18 January, this event is returning to Britain for the first time in over a decade where it is serving as a pivotal moment on the road to Milano Cortina 2026 as the penultimate ice skating championship to take place before the Winter Olympics in Italy.

The Sunset Vine host broadcast team worked hard over the weekend prior to the 2026 BIS ISU European Championships to get ready for the start of the tournament on 13 January

Pressure is on

With this Championships being the penultimate event prior to the Winter Olympics next month, the pressure is on to deliver a spectacular broadcast. The final event before Milano Cortina is the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships, an annual ISU event for skaters from non-European countries Africa, Asia, Americas, Oceania which place from 21 to 25 January 2026 at the National Indoor Stadium in Beijing, China.

Notes Jonathan Sloan, Sunset Vine senior producer: So there's two events happening in parallel as we head towards the Olympics. In terms of the pressure, obviously it's a pivotal moment for figure skating, not only ahead of the Winter Olympics, but also in the UK.

It has been a long time since there's been a big championship here, so it's just really exciting to have it. We've a lot of people in this country grown up with huge ice skating names, Robin Cousins, obviously Torvill and Dean, high profile people, and we've got Dancing on Ice. So a lot of people are aware and love the sport, and it's a great opportunity to showcase this at a really big moment in the four year cycle.

Sloan says on the goal for the production: Ultimately it's to deliver world-class coverage reflecting all the skill on display on the ice and the entertainment around the venue that British Ice Skating. We've put together a great team with huge levels of experience, including Helen Kutner, who's our director. She's overseen World Athletics Championships, Wimbledon Finals, and other events like that. So we've put together a great team to deliver great world feed coverage across the four days of competition, and one exhibition gala day. There is a slight shift on that fifth day, but ultimately it's about world feed coverage and delivering it to the best of our ability.

The first four days of competition reflects the four disciplines and on the fifth day, there is an exhibition gala where local skaters and some of the top skaters will put on showbiz-style routines, which will involve different lighting and a different style of editing that may include faster cuts or quicker camera movements.

Collaborative process

Sloan notes on how the year of planning for this event has gone: I'd say it's been a really collaborative process throughout. BIS are the client, but it's also an ISU event and one of their big championships and throughout, it's been really collaborative. The site visits go back to March 2025 I think our first kind of recce was, and we've been back again in the summer when the ISU came along as well. I had a couple of days of meetings and walkarounds with them. We've had, over the last handful of months, we've had weekly meetings with BIS, the ISU, the sports pres team, and it's been a really good process. BIS have been great to work with; the way that everyone's been brought together and we've all been getting to know each other, so we know what each other needs.

Everyone's on the same page in delivering what the ISU expect in terms of their look and feel, and also delivering to the BIS. So I'd say it's been a huge focus in bringing everyone together and working together so that when we're on site, we're all part of one team and working to deliver the best event possible, concludes Sloan.

No stranger to ice

Sunset Vine is no stranger to the ice, currently in its second year as media and production partner for the ISU Short Track World Tour where it produces live streams, highlights, YouTube channel management, and social-first storytelling content.

While Sunset Vine's team is all on site during the Championships working on the host broadcast, under its ISU contract for world feed clipping, a separate team will be working from its HQ in London.

Mark Dennis, Sunset Vine technical producer for the event, explains: We have a Timeline OB truck parked out in the good's yard for the BIS world feed host broadcast coverage, then for our ISU social clipping, we do that remotely from our offices in Hammersmith as part of our bigger ISU contract. So every week we have ISU feeds coming into our offices in Hammersmith, which we then stream to YouTube or whatever platform is requested. We also do the ISU's social clipping as well from our offices in Hammersmith.

In addition to that ISU contract, after the weekend Sunset Vine will create a short highlights package for digital.

Comments Sloan on the ISU YouTube live streams and what that involves for the Sunset Vine team: We manage the YouTube live streams of all their events, so figure skating, short track, long track. That involves clipping, socials, digital, and things like that. We also edit promos and other VTs that run through the season ahead of their events, and sometimes at bigger events we look after in venue videos that go on the big screen as part of sports pres, so delivering an ISU-themed piece to sports pres to keep continuity of that.

However in the grand scheme of t

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