
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
13/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/03/2026
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced Spectrum X Plus, the newest generation of its Spectrum X media server, offering double the channel density of previous ...
13/03/2026
When Ewing Covenant Church made the decision to return to its original, historic building, affectionately called 1867 Sanctuary for weekly worship, the congre...
13/03/2026
Marshall Electronics introduces its first all-IP 4K POV camera, the CV574-WP, at NAB 2026 (Booth C8339). The CV574-WP supports NDI |HX, providing ultra-efficien...
13/03/2026
At NAB Show 2026, Net Insight introduces Nimbra 520, a high-density media processing node designed to simplify live contribution and distribution across both ma...
13/03/2026
Abandon Editorial Signs With Micha l Dimitri for West Coast Representation
Brie Clayton March 12, 2026
0 Comments
Abandon Editorial is excited to part...
13/03/2026
Documentary The Bulldogs Shot and Edited with Blackmagic Design
Brie Clayton March 12, 2026
0 Comments
Editorial tools helped shape film in real time,...
13/03/2026
AE Captions as Fast as CapCut - No Plugins
Graham Quince March 12, 2026
0 Comments
Stop wasting hours clicking through nested compositions and manuall...
13/03/2026
New Music USA and Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice Announce 2026 Nex...
12/03/2026
Utah Scientific Expands Technology Partner Program With Integrations From Audina...
12/03/2026
Techex, a global expert in live video solutions over IP and cloud, announces the appointment of Matt McKee as Senior Director, Sales, Americas, further strength...
12/03/2026
KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America has appointed Mondae Hott as Regional Sales Manag...
12/03/2026
At the 2026 NAB Show, Interra Systems will showcase its latest advancements in a...
12/03/2026
The 15th National Games of China concluded after a two-week celebration of athletic excellence and regional collaboration. Held from Nov. 9-21 across Guangdong,...
12/03/2026
Live-production academic program Butler Sports Live produced a total of 40 fall-...
12/03/2026
The University of Nebraska's HuskerVision has completed the second phase of ...
12/03/2026
Grass Valley and integration partner Tab M Solutions have completed Phase 1 of a...
12/03/2026
The broadcaster expands its campus-production model as the university handles tw...
12/03/2026
Disney has announced the addition of March Madness - the NCAA Division I Men...
12/03/2026
Apple TV's Friday Night Baseball MLB doubleheader series returns for its f...
12/03/2026
The senior from New Jersey is making his mark in South Bend, both on the mic and behind it...
12/03/2026
After a relatively quiet January, the month of February was jammed packed with l...
12/03/2026
Long-time production partner Echo Entertainment is producing the broadcast, while Cosm played a vital role in the collaboration...
12/03/2026
By Jessica Herndon
We love kicking off each year by introducing the world to po...
12/03/2026
Samrat Chakrabarti, George Basil, Kiran Deol, Katie McCuen and Vishal Vijayakumar attend the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Didn't Die at the Lib...
12/03/2026
MELBOURNE, Fla., March 11, 2026 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) and Shield AI have successfully demonstrated a first-of-its-kind integration combining L3Har...
12/03/2026
The incorporation of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning into modern, converged all-domain systems is enabling true Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Oper...
12/03/2026
MELBOURNE, Fla., March 12, 2026 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) today announ...
12/03/2026
Cost pressures, switching intent and demand for savings and credit products are ...
12/03/2026
For the first time, Nielsen breaks out demographic information about FAST and AV...
12/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/03/2026
Appear's high-performance, ultra-low latency encoding platform augments LTN's fully managed global IP network and orchestration platform
LTN, a leader ...
12/03/2026
2026 NAB Show Exhibitor Preview
April 18-22
Las Vegas
Booth C3519
Summary:
At the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas, Boland Communications will be showing the bro...
12/03/2026
Riedel Communications today announced the continued expansion of its Managed Technology Division in the Americas and the appointment of Jan Schaffner as Vice Pr...
12/03/2026
Grass Valley and integration partner Tab M Solutions have completed Phase 1 of a new broadcast production control room for the University of Illinois Division o...
12/03/2026
NAKIVO, a global provider of backup and ransomware recovery solutions, announces the general availability of NAKIVO Backup & Replication v11.2. This release exp...
12/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/03/2026
COW Jobs: Editor de V deo - Direct Response, Performance Ads - Brazil, Remote
Brie Clayton March 11, 2026
0 Comments
Editor(a) de V deo (Direct Respon...
12/03/2026
Avatar: Fire and Ash Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton March 11, 2026
0 Comments
Colorist delivers premium cinematic color across 2D, 3D...
12/03/2026
Boston Conservatory to Timoth e Chalamet: We Care About Ballet and Opera Boston Conservatory at Berklee students and faculty respond to the actors recent comm...
12/03/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Develops an Unprecedented Series About the Passionate ...
12/03/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Opens Eyeline Studios in Hyderabad, Anchoring Long-Ter...
12/03/2026
Back to All News
A Documentary About Ronaldinho Ga cho Leads Netflix's Slat...
12/03/2026
Editor's note: This post is part of Into the Omniverse, a series focused on ...
12/03/2026
GeForce NOW is bringing the game to the Game Developers Conference (GDC), running this week in San Francisco. While developers build the future of gaming, GeFor...