Roland-Garros 2023: FFT and HBS on this year's social media proof of concept service, enhanced content and constant learnings By Heather McLean Friday, June 9, 2023 - 09:32
Print This Story
Host court side cameras on Court 6 at Roland-Garros
Roland-Garros is ready for the final call of game, set and match this weekend, as the tension builds towards the champions battling it out on the red clay courts.
Following the F d ration Fran aise de Tennis' (FFT) takeover of the host broadcast from France Television in 2021, its relationship with technical services provider for the annual production of the French Open, HBS, is going from strength to strength.
Speaking to SVG Europe, Amandine Tyl, head of broadcast and production in the media and production department at the FFT, comments on the French Tennis Federation's goals for the production of Roland-Garros: From the FFT side, what we are expecting is just to fit with the needs of our broadcasters. We have many different broadcasters around the world; some of them are mainstream broadcasters, others are more like sports broadcasters, and other of them such as Tennis Channel, for example, are dedicated to only tennis all year long. So what we are expecting is to find the right balance in term of broadcasting.
Between the tennis, which is the core of what we are producing, and the fact that we are Roland-Garros, we are in Paris, and so we also want to show that, notes Tyl. So we are focusing of course on the coverage of the courts, which is the basic we need to have for our broadcasters. But as we said, we are also trying to give an overview and make it possible for broadcasters and the audience all around the world to understand where we are; the fact that we are actually in Paris, in the middle of the city, more or less.
Amazon Prime presentation position at Roland-Garros 2023
Social stories
Social media is the big story of Roland-Garros 2023, where a proof of concept service has been launched this year for all broadcasters to access. Tyl explains: [Our social media strategy] is evolving a lot. This year as a proof of concept, we have launched a new service for broadcasters together with HBS. It's called the Social Media Interface. Basically this is a web-based interface which is developed by HBS and on this platform we provide to all our broadcasters only content dedicated to digital platforms, which means content here is really made for digital, not coming [direct] from the world feed. Some of it may come from the world feed, but then it is released in a format which fits with digital needs.
Also, most of this [social media-specific] content is coming from cell phones, she continues. So this is not normal broadcast; this is really something dedicated to digital teams. We have been in touch with all broadcasters, with their digital teams, in order to present the service to explain a little more about what we will share with them. We get the content really quickly; basically those guys [working on this content] are, for example, on the court with their cell phone. They're just shooting something, they send it immediately, and less than one minute later the broadcaster can get access to this content. They can easily download it. They can change the titles if they want in order to put them on the digital platform.
This is something that we think is really changing now; that's the reason why we decided to go for this proof of concept together with the broadcasters, to learn a little more about their needs, and what they really expect from us.
See more pictures from Roland-Garros 2023 here
The FFT launched its main content hub for all its rights holding broadcasters, both on and off site, in 2021. It is called the RG Live Server. The type of content covered on the new Social Media Interface includes classic court content, but also, says Tyl, a lot of behind the scenes footage, such as players just before they enter a court, arriving at the venue in their cars, walking to their practice sessions or in the gym, and so on.
Adds Tyl: We are trying to put some content, for instance focused on court and what is happening there with a specific digital angle, as well as some behind the scenes content. This is proof of concept so we should be able to tell you later after the tournament how successful it was, but honestly, the first feedback we got are very good. All the broadcasters involved are quite happy with this proof of concept, and the fact that we are trying to give them specific content for their digital platforms. It seems that we have quite a lot of downloads on our platform already, so we will see for next year what we will decide to go for, but this is something we are working on clearly.
Eurosport roving presentation during French Open coverage this year
Market trends
The FFT decided to create the Social Media Interface proof of concept itself, partly through observing market trends, and partly through watching what its rights holding broadcasters were doing with the world feed content provided in recent years.
Notes Tyl: We are just following the market. We understand that broadcasters need more and more content for their digital platforms. To be honest, we are quite lucky at Roland-Garros because most of our broadcasters are on site, which is not the case for all events, but still there are some broadcasters who are not on site who don't have any ENG crew and just rely on us in order to give them [all of their] content. I think [the social media hub] is something quite new. Now, through the social media interface, we have two platforms [including the RG Live Server] which are really easy to use for broadcasters, on which they can get content as if they were in Paris. I think this is something that is really key for us; to make sure that all our broadcasters, even if they don
