Live from Sportel Monaco: Olympic Channel takes sports documentary making to new level with social stars Sustaining viewer interest in athletes beyond Olympics is key factor for IOC operated service By Heather McLean, Editor
Monday, October 21, 2019 - 16:24
Print This Story
The Olympic Channel's Mark Parkman, general manager
Here in Monaco, the Olympic Channel is premiering the first linear episode of its new near-live documentary covering the next big stars of gymnastics, All Around.
The show, hitting the red carpet on Monday 21 October in Monte Carlo, is using an innovative combination of monthly episodes and social media push from the stars of the show themselves to gain the attention of viewers.
The digital and linear follow me' style series produced by Noah Media Group is covering the stories of three rising stars in gymnastics on their way to Japan 2020, from Russia, China and the US.
Each of the monthly digital episodes are being filmed and edited on an ongoing basis, following the young female athletes in their personal and sporting life as they attempt to overcome emotional and physical hardships in their bids to medal next year.
Speaking to SVG Europe, Mark Parkman, general manager at the Olympic Channel, said: We're embedded with these three different gymnasts, not live but close to, and are releasing one episode per month on the lead up to Tokyo. It's pretty aggressive, what we're doing.
Referring to the two-pronged attack on film promotion that the Olympic Channel is taking with this documentary series, he added: The gymnasts themselves are pushing [the programme] over social, mostly on their Instagram and Twitter accounts, and that's what we wanted them to do. It's unusual.
The reason for the Olympic Channel's push into more immersive content is to sustain the viewer's attention beyond each Olympic Games, explained Parkman. Our challenge is primarily trying to keep people interested in the people within the games. People's interest has always been very cyclical [centred around each Olympic Games]. We want to, through our storytelling, keep people interested in the athletes; they don't go away, but we only see them in mass quantities every four years.
We want to level that out so people will feel that these are truly world class athletes, and so people will engage with them on a more regular basis, added Parkman.
The series includes 12 digital episodes each around 15 minutes long released one per month up to Tokyo 2020, and four linear episodes which are 24 to 26 minutes long. The linear episodes are created by taking content from the digital side and extending it out into longer stories. Both digital and linear episodes are available as they are produced on the Olympic Channel, and from broadcasters and federations.
Noted Parkman: The first episode has performed very well. It was our best performing episode ever released so far, so we are now looking at what we can do [in a similar vein] for Beijing 2022.
Concluded Parkman: I don't think there is a media company that has a more extensive programming slate about sports than us. We have done 70 original series since the channel was launched, equalling over 1,000 episodes, with 25 different production companies form 25 different countries to provide different perspectives.
The Olympic Chanel's series, All Around, follows world-class gymnasts Morgan Hurd, Chen Yile and Angelina Melnikova as they set out on a year-long journey towards the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
North America Stories
23/07/2026
Evergent (5.A86) will showcase its Agentic Revenue Orchestration Platform for streaming services, sports leagues, pay-TV operators at IBC2026 (RAI Amsterdam, 11...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
David Dvir, 2D founder (left), Sundeep Reddy (center), and Jean-Marc Bouchut (right), both of Zeiss...
23/07/2026
Lock in and load up the cloud. GFN Thursday brings fresh updates and new adventu...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
22/07/2026
From Class to Concert: Explore a Student-Led Production of David Bowies Work Thr...
22/07/2026
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang today visited the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, to commission an NVIDIA DGX GB300 system - bringing one...
22/07/2026
Before a healthcare robot can be useful in the real world, it has to learn how the physical world pushes back. Anatomy varies. Instruments bend, press, slip and...
21/07/2026
With winners Spain having already paraded the World Cup trophy through Madrid in front of millions of fans and the dust now settling on an epic tournament of th...
21/07/2026
In a time of disarray in regional sports broadcasting, the league will provide c...
21/07/2026
When NEP designed one of its largest recurring mobile production unit fleets for PGA TOUR
coverage, the leading media services provider faced a familiar challe...
21/07/2026
Warner Bros. Discovery's unbroken lead is interrupted as sports and live mus...
21/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/07/2026
Across the TV and streaming ecosystem, industry players face mounting pressure to do more with less. They must simplify operations, protect premium content and ...
21/07/2026
Tuxera, a leading prover of quality-assured file systems and networking technologies, is bringing its latest advances in connectivity performance to the media w...
21/07/2026
COW Jobs: Apple Motion Expert for Custom FCP Rigged Graphics Package
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
HIRING: Apple Motion Expert for Custom FCP ...
21/07/2026
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, will use its presence at IBC2026 (stand 7.A01, Amsterdam RAI, 11 14 September) to...
21/07/2026
Calrec will be located in Hall 8, on Stand C47
Beyond bigger
For years, broadcast facilities were built around one assumption: provision for the biggest pro...
Live from Sportel Monaco: Olympic Channel takes sports documentary making to new level with social stars Sustaining viewer interest in athletes beyond Olympics is key factor for IOC operated service By Heather McLean, Editor 
