A Race to the Finnish: The Changing Face of Winter Sports Coverage at Yle

A race to the Finnish: The changing face of winter sports coverage at Yle By Will Strauss

Thursday, April 27, 2023 - 15:57

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Public service broadcaster Yle has the rights to broadcast various winter sports in Finland, from the Winter Olympics and the Biathlon World Cup to the Alpine, Nordic Ski, Freestyle and Snowboarding World Cups and World Championships. It offers viewers presentation and analysis as part of its coverage, as well as performing host broadcast duties on local competitions. In this in-depth interview, presenter turned executive producer Kristiina Kek l inen discusses her career so far, outlines the broadcaster's winter sports philosophy, and explains how two very different uses of technology have helped engage viewers.

A lot of Yle's output is based around the Sports Studio. Tell us about it.

Back in 2018, we knew we had winter sports rights for the next three years. And we knew we wanted to create something with that. Sports Studio brought everything together and it's a brand nowadays and a concept that we use at the weekend. We have 8 to 10 hours of broadcasting when we combine these events like the World Cup events in winter sports. And, in my opinion, we have changed the way of doing sports journalism with this concept.

What is the philosophy behind Sports Studio?

We want people to enjoy it, of course. But we also do the critical things and the analysis part of sports journalism. In a straight translation from Finnish, Sports Studio is a friend that unites sports, Finnish people and the world around them. So there's no subject that we can't talk about. There is a big team. It took some time to change the old habits and ways to do things when we started because we wanted to do things differently.

How does Sports Studio differ from how you previously covered winter sports?

We used to have the commentators and the experts come to the studio after the events and do the analysis. But we decided we didn't want to do that because we thought that if the commentator and the expert have been already been in the commentator position, why are we talking about that same stuff in the studio again? We now focus more, for example, on the athletes and their stories. We get closer to them and make the show fun. And we want to be close to the audience and we want them to take part in our shows.

Can you give us an example of how that manifests itself onscreen?

Sport still gathers people together. Cross-country skiing, for example. We get to a point where one million Finns or two million Finns are watching the game or the Winter Olympics. But we also look to find a different perspective when we are interviewing the athletes. We don't just ask How are you preparing for the upcoming event?

We are bringing out the human side of the athletes so that they're not just the people that are practising a lot and competing a lot. We make them more human.

For example, in the Beijing Olympics. The cross-country skier Iivo Niskanen won three medals in cross-country. But his sister runs a bakery. So we invited the sister to bake a cake for Livo's gold medal and we asked her to come to the studio. And we had Livo in Google Meet straight from Beijing and he had his Olympic gold medal there. And she was like, Oh, my sister is there! And she had a cake!

We are bringing out the human side of the athletes so that they're not just the people that are practising a lot and competing a lot. We make them more human.

When you first got this job, you said you were keen to use technology to aid your storytelling and interaction. How have you done that?

Well, first we used WhatsApp! Really! We created this concept where our experts answer questions that are sent to us during the studio breaks via WhatsApp. And it has been a huge success. It allows us to ask some of the more simplistic questions that the audience wants the answers to.

At the other end of the spectrum, we have also used quite a lot of AR technology. Before this season started, we captured Kaisa M k r inen, the biathlete, in front of a green screen while she explained her various techniques and tactics. We captured her from 20 different angles and created a graphic that allows the presentation team to talk about Kaisa and analyse her on-air and we can illustrate that using the AR model in the studio. We did the same with Janne Ahonen, who is a former ski jumper.

What is next for Sports Studio?

We definitely want to develop the Sports Studio and the winter sports, and go more to the digital platforms. We would like to create a sort of tribe, so it's Sports Studio's tribe, a tribe where people could come together before, during and after the competitions. Chatting together along with the event and chat with our experts, commentators and guests. Create a conversation.

You also do the host broadcast production of domestic legs of World Cup events What do you try and achieve with that coverage?

It's the story. That is the most important thing. The story from the beginning to the end. When they're preparing, who are the favourites and who are the dark horses? And that's very important before the race starts. And then, of course, you have to follow during the race. And afterwards, highlight the ones who succeeded.

You've been at YLE since 2002. First as a reporter and presenter, then producer and head producer, and now as executive producer, a role you have held since 2020. Tell us a bit about your journey.

I went to a high school that specialised in music. When I was very young I played this Finnish National instrument called the Kantele, which is sort of like a harp, but I was also very into sports. I liked cross-country skiing, fitness, baseball, and swimming. And I was following sports with my father. And so it has been a big part of

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