
Warner Bros. Discovery brings a world feed production in-house for the first time with Speedway Grand Prix By Heather McLean, Editor
Friday, May 6, 2022 - 15:18
Print This Story
TVN Poland has been selected to provide the outside broadcast (OB) facilities for Warner Bros. Discovery, which is bringing the world feed production in-house for the very first time on any of its products. Above, a rider talks to a presenter at the FIM Speedway Grand Prix of Croatia on Saturday 30 April
Warner Bros Discovery has taken its first-ever step into in-house production for a world feed in its inaugural season as the global promoter of Speedway Grand Prix (SGP), which sped off to a flying start at the FIM Speedway Grand Prix of Croatia on Saturday 30 April.
The broadcaster has taken the production of the series in-house after winning the rights for Speedway from F d ration Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) in the latter half of 2019. It took over from IMG, which had held the position for 20 years.
New level of control for Discovery
The 2022 season of SGP marks the first time Discovery has bought the production of one of its sports properties in-house. Talking to SVG Europe, Francois Ribeiro, head of Discovery Sports Events, says: The first decision we took is this is the first time that Discovery Sports Events has taken the decision to produce the world feed in-house. So rather than going to an external TV production company, we took the decision that all the equipment and all the staff we are working with are Discovery people.
For TVN Poland, they rank the sport in the top three spots in their country and the level of motivation, the level of engagement, the level of commitment they put into this was just exceptional
This is the first time we have done this, says Ribeiro. It's really the first time we have had this level of control because we promote [Speedway], we produce the feed, we broadcast it, we distribute it, and it is the first time we have organised the production with our own staff and our own equipment, and really that make it a bit special, and probably that will give us more grip and more power if we want to keep elevating the level of production.
While the FIM Speedway Grand Prix of Croatia on Saturday 30 April was sold out with 6,500 fans present, the FIM Speedway Grand Prix of Poland in Warsaw on 14 May, is already sold out for the famous PGE Narodowy stadium which has a 50,000 capacity
Teamwork makes the dream work
TVN Poland has been selected to provide the outside broadcast (OB) facilities for Discovery. The broadcaster is working with TVN Poland specifically because Speedway is a tier one sport in the country, and with a massive number of home fans scruitinising all productions of the sport, TVN Poland has become an expert in getting Speedway onto the screen.
As a comparison, at the Round 1 Speedway Grand Prix of Croatia on 30 April, tickets sold out with 6,500 fans present, whereas at the FIM Speedway Grand Prix of Poland in Warsaw on 14 May, tickets are already sold out for the famous PGE Narodowy stadium which has a 50,000 capacity.
Notes Ribeiro: For TVN Poland, they rank the sport in the top three spots in their country and the level of motivation, the level of engagement, the level of commitment they put into this was just exceptional.
Scott Young, senior vice president of content and production at Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, comments on the move to bring Speedway in-house: When I started in television, which was a million years ago, we had our own OB vans and helicopters and everything, and all that's been sort of diversified out to private companies, which we engage with and they do a phenomenal job. NEP, who we use to do track Champions League, they're an outstanding partner for us, in that particular sport.
The difference with our team [at TVN] Poland is this is their field of expertise, so the reason to bring them in at this time is because this is their bread and butter, continues Young. This is what they absolutely love. The passion runs through their veins with Speedway, so there was a very particular reason why we chose an internal team at this point, because we knew we were bringing in the people [at TVN Poland] who were absolutely focused on this sport, could bring in expertise that we probably couldn't match anywhere else.
So whilst technology is one thing, and you can bring in trucks and cameras from pretty much anywhere, the expertise that came with [TVN Poland] along with that passion and commitment was pretty extraordinary. We don't have the resources to do all of our sports in this way, but this was definitely the one to step this up on, notes Young.
Nearly there for European Technology Transformation
Remote production is on the cards for SGP, but not just yet. Discovery is in the throes of working on a Europe-wide IP-based network which will see it running a backbone across which it can push all of its productions.
Explains Young: At the moment, we're in the final stages of completing what you may have heard before as European Technology Transformation (ETT), which is a technology transformation roll out across all of our platforms. Once every market is connected and we can start connecting the venues, then we can take smaller pods to the venues and using fibre technology, bring the cameras back to any one of our galleries or production control rooms across the Discovery network.
We have the new technology sitting in our offices, in Poland, in Germany, our main tech hubs here in London and Paris, and we've got a main tech hub also in Oslo. We can start to move this technology around.
Connectivity to the Speedway venues is probably the next thing we need to pick up on, but we're making some pretty big inroads to remote around Speedway, concludes Young. We just probably nee
More from Sports Video Group
20/04/2026
At the 2026 NAB Show, Sony is showcasing a broad slate of innovations across liv...
20/04/2026
At the 2026 NAB Show, Canon is doubling down on its commitment to live sports pr...
20/04/2026
Fujifilm is sharpening its focus on core broadcast production with a new wave of...
20/04/2026
This upcoming summer in North America is going to be a busy one. The 2026 FIFA M...
20/04/2026
Glookast (Booth W1661) announced a series of product updates at NAB Show 2026, c...
20/04/2026
Matrox Video and Amagi announced a collaboration to integrate the Matrox ORIGIN ...
20/04/2026
Riedel Communications (Booth C4908) announced that the Asociaci n del F tbol Arg...
20/04/2026
Ikegami (Booth C3819) announced the VFE-P07D monocular OLED viewfinder at NAB Sh...
20/04/2026
International Association of MediaTech (IAMT), formerly known as IABM, announced...
20/04/2026
Harmonic (Booth W2831) announced that DIRECTV is updating its US direct-to-home (DTH) video platform using Harmonic's VOS Media Software.
The deployment is...
20/04/2026
Wasabi Technologies announced that it has acquired the Lyve Cloud business from Seagate Technology. As part of the agreement, Seagate received equity in Wasabi ...
20/04/2026
EVS (Booth N1841) has launched Choreon, a robotics controller for media producti...
20/04/2026
The NAB Show is in full swing, and the SVG and SVG Europe editorial teams are chasing down the hottest stories from all over the Las Vegas Convention Center. He...
20/04/2026
Skyline Communications announced the availability of its DataMiner xOps platform...
20/04/2026
Studio Network Solutions (Booth N1129) introduced a set of new products at NAB S...
20/04/2026
Dell Technologies is showcasing its Dell AI Data Platform with NVIDIA at NAB Sho...
20/04/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced Fairlight Live, a software-based live audio mixer with SMPTE 2110 support and spatial audio mixing. A public beta is available n...
20/04/2026
At the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas, Imagine Communications VP of Sales, Sports an...
20/04/2026
At the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas, LiveU Senior Director of Sales, Sports Philli...
19/04/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced the ATEM 4 M/E Constellation IP and ATEM 4 M/E Constellation IP Plus, two SMPTE 2110-native live production switchers. The ATEM ...
19/04/2026
Grass Valley is finding the right balance between its hardware heritage with an ...
19/04/2026
Oracle's strategy rests on the foundational strengths of Oracle Cloud Infras...
19/04/2026
Program Productions, the live sports production industry's leading crewer, i...
19/04/2026
At the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas, SVG sat down with Joe Scionti, Account Manage...
19/04/2026
At its 2026 NAB Show keynote event, Ross Video came out swinging with one of its...
19/04/2026
Evertz (Booth N817) is set to present new services within its evertz.io platform...
19/04/2026
Evertz (Booth N817) will showcase its IPMX-certified NUCLEUS platform alongside ...
19/04/2026
Evertz (Booth N817) is set to showcase ENX at NAB 2026, a media core platform designed to support hybrid SDI and IP infrastructures in production facilities and...
19/04/2026
Evertz (Booth N817) will introduce Studer VistaVUE Touch at NAB 2026, a control surface designed to integrate audio, video and control workflows within a custom...
19/04/2026
Evertz (Booth N817) will highlight X-CALIBER at NAB 2026, an encoding and decodi...
19/04/2026
Cobalt Digital (Booth N1340) will introduce the blueCORE family of standalone si...
19/04/2026
Chyron and Asport (Booth N2441) will demonstrate an integrated sports video work...
19/04/2026
MediaKind (Booth W1743) provided an update on its Multiview deployments at NAB S...
19/04/2026
Calrec (Booth C6907) and Grass Valley (Booth C2408) announced a long-term broadc...
19/04/2026
Oracle is bringing a multi-partner demonstration of Media over QUIC (MoQ)-based live streaming to NAB Show 2026, showcasing how independent systems from multipl...
19/04/2026
Encompass Digital Media announced an expanded partnership with Oracle Cloud Infr...
19/04/2026
The NAB Show is in full swing, and the SVG and SVG Europe editorial teams are chasing down the hottest stories from all over the Las Vegas Convention Center. He...
19/04/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced the ATEM 4 M/E Constellation IP and ATEM 4 M/E Constellation IP Plus, two SMPTE 2110-native live production switchers. The ATEM ...
18/04/2026
MultiDyne Video & Fiber Optic Systems has begun shipping the C16-AM-12G audio mo...
18/04/2026
FOR-A America is set to detail AI functionality for its software-defined IMPULSE...
18/04/2026
Cobalt Digital and SineSix Media have announced a partnership to integrate the v...
18/04/2026
The ATSC, the broadcast standards association, is highlighting the status of the ATSC 3.0 internet protocol-based broadcast standard at the 2026 NAB Show. The e...
18/04/2026
Bolin Technology has introduced a new range of hardware for live production envi...
18/04/2026
KMH Integration is participating in the 2026 NAB Show, focusing on its AV Casti...
18/04/2026
Appear has appointed Mike Burk as vice president of business development for North America. Burk brings over two decades of experience in the broadcast and live...
18/04/2026
Skyline Communications is showcasing its DataMiner platform and the new DataMine...
18/04/2026
Telos Alliance is exhibiting its portfolio of broadcast audio products at the 20...
18/04/2026
TAG Video Systems has announced an integration with the AWS Elemental MediaConne...
18/04/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced DaVinci Resolve 21, with a public beta available now for download. The update will be demonstrated at NAB Show 2026 (Booth N2502...
18/04/2026
Calrec (Booth C6907) and Grass Valley (Booth C2408) have announced a long-term broadcast audio technology partnership at NAB Show 2026, integrating Calrec's...