On the Record with Yiannis Exarchos

(ATR) The torch is passed to a new generation at Olympic Broadcasting Services. New CEO Yiannis Exarchos took over January 1 after the retirement of founder Manolo Romero.

Exarchos is an OBS veteran, working alongside Romero since 2001 when he was recruited from Greek TV to help guide preparations for Athens 2004.

He heads a staff of 140 based in Madrid that oversees broadcast plans and operations for the Olympic Games. Formed in 2001, OBS is wholly owned by the IOC.

Exarchos talks about the change in command, the changing nature of TV, Sochi and Rio de Janeiro as he goes On the Record with Around the Rings Editor Ed Hula during a visit last month to the OBS Madrid offices.

ATR: Is it much different with you as CEO? Major changes?

YE: Not really. I would say it’s a time where a number of people who used to be in senior positions have retired. I usually call them the generation of ‘68 because there are a lot of people that started back in Mexico City, together with Manolo Romero.

But now younger people come to these positions, who have been trained and prepared for these positions, to take over by this generation. Other than that I don’t see that there are fundamental changes in direction.

I think what Manolo was trying to do is still our objective: To put people around the world in the best positions, in the best seats to watch the Olympic Games and to feel the Olympic emotion and to be inspired by the Olympic ideas.

Probably the slight difference in the future will be that this seat will not only be the traditional seat on the sofa or on the armchair watching television. It might be a seat in front of a computer or a seat in public transport following on your mobile phone or your tablet.

This is the nature of the changing, evolving media that we as the Olympic host broadcasters, that we enable the broadcasters to transmit the Olympic Games in a special way, in a high quality way through all those new outlets, with the opportunities that technology is providing for us.

ATR: Do you have to provide something different than the regular TV signal? Do you have to approach it differently?

YE: We already started in Beijing to be providing different signals that are ready made for IP TV, stream signals that broadcasters would put on the internet almost ready made.

And our direction is clearly to start providing to broadcasters production formats that we make it very easy for them, that we facilitate them in broadcasting through all those different formats, so we start producing content which is more mobile friendly and more tablet friendly and so on.

We have a lot of ideas that we are currently discussing with broadcasters and this is clearly the direction that we are going. As the host broadcasters we are looking into opportunities with creating common platforms in order to reduce the investment and the cost because all those new developments are costly. So we are looking into ways we can collectively create core new production services that all broadcasters can use without each and everyone developing platforms for which they would use.

This is very central now. I think of course we never take our eye away from improving the level of production as we know it on television, but on needs to take into consideration all those new developments another area would clearly be the desire of broadcasters and their hunger for more data and for more meta-data for the games, which is driven by all those new platforms.

ATR: Is this text?

YE: I would say data because it’s not always text, it’s more than that. It is sometimes intelligent forms of information that go with broadcasting. They are usually originated by the technology department of the Olympic Games, but we are looking into ways to how to make better more efficient use more attractive use in broadcasting terms for all this data because it’s clear that broadcasters want more and more in this direction.

ATR: And these changes are a result of TV changes, not OBS saying we’re going to do this differently. You’re working with the TV industry and reacting?

YE: Listen, for us fundamental is what the rights holding broadcasters want. We’re here to service their needs. That said, the Olympics rights-holding broadcasters most are very, very important organizations that are pushing the envelope with broadcasting their own rights starting with NBC or BBC or big European broadcasters or Japanese broadcasters. They are the major players these days and have been for a number of years in moving broadcasting forward.

I say it’s probably an interactive process. There is desire discussed with the broadcasters all the time to understand their needs. It’s fundamental for us, but we also start developing ideas of our own and proposing to them that we believe will make a difference.

Like, for example, the introduction of the multi-channel distribution system, which is a world-wide satellite distribution system that allows broadcasters to receive the vast majority of the Olympic content back to their home countries. This is a practical facilitation that allows them to spend so much less in international transmission, to have more content ready made for broadcast back in their home countries.

It’s also something that helps host cities not to have to accommodate so many people because that’s a fundamental problem with the Games now, the Games grow and grow and gown and broadcasting needs grow and grow, we need to find a way for broadcasters to do more with less.

They want more content, better content, and richer information but also we understand that we will have to find a way so that they do that with less presence in the host city. This is a model that we are working on and taking a number of initiatives that are aimed at helping broadcasters do more to be able to produce more and better without having more people in the host city.

ATR: And that’s already happening?

YE: It’s already happening. I must say that in London we introduced a number of such initiatives such as more flexible commentary positions, did some interviews that we were doing on behalf of a number of broadcasters. They resulted in a significant savings.

In London we provided essentially far more service than in Beijing while using less space in the venues. The commentary position space was reduced practically 15 to 20 percent.

ATR: You do have a next Games coming up in less than 12 months now, Sochi, where you just held a broadcasters meeting?

YE: We had a big broadcasters meeting in Sochi in February. I think it went well. I think broadcasters were clear as everybody is impressed with the development of this, with the incredible development of what’s going on.

It’s also clear that there were challenges during the test events with the weather but this is why the test events are and it’s probably better these things happen now so there can be plans and there can be a plan for how these things can happen during the Games. I think overall the broadcasters left Sochi very, very impressed with that.

There is still work to be done. There are still issues of primarily operational nature that need to be clarified. We need to understand that these are Games taking place not in a big city, not in a big traditional hub of operations. So for every part of the operations surrounding the games you have to think in a special way of doing it. Of how to transfer your equipment there, to find personnel, to accommodate personnel.

I think it’s these types of questions that are being answered or addressed one by one. I think this is the major area that draws our attention at this point.

ATR: Not so much how to organize the broadcast?

YE: I think the core broadcast activity was well under control. The things we have to ensure now is that our activities there will have all the necessary logistical operational administrative support to happen without any problems.

ATR: Do you need a lot of government help? Or a lot of organizing committee help?

YE: Inevitably we may in a place like Sochi, because you don’t have an established local broadcast industry. It’s not Vancouver where everybody is used to it. And that’s the beauty of it if you ask me.

But yes you need the support of the organizing committee, and I believe the organizing committee led by Dmitry Chernyshenko is doing an amazing job and has an understanding of the needs of broadcasting.

And all the other government entities that are now coming on board. It’s a little bit normal that central government authorities need to get involved in Games and this happens in the later stages of preparation.

So I think this is the time where all different state entities understand the Games and understand the part they need to play and how they need to do it. Understand how different the Olympic Games are to many other events. I think this is the road that will be covered from now until the Games.

ATR: Do you hire local personnel? How much will you be able to do that in Sochi?

YE: As much as we can. Listen I want to talk to you first of all about what I consider is always one of the most important legacies that broadcast operations leaves. This is our training program that we are doing for young students that come from universities. They study media or television or similar departments.

Obviously in Sochi there aren’t such universities or students so we organize these programs in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

So different than what happened in previous cities, the training program would not take place in the city itself because simply there are not specialized universities. That being said, the interest from students is phenomenal we have already close to 1,000 students registered and I think this program is going well.

The additional complexity there is where in traditional universities the students live in the city, now we have to transport them all find accommodation for them in a city where we know there is a problem and shortage of accommodation, feed them and so on.

Still it is an initiative that is very important and we wouldn’t want to do the games with avoiding that. Could we substitute those students with other young professionals? We could, but it’s not something we wanted to do. We wanted to leave this legacy. It’s fundamental when the Games go and you have 800 students wanting to work in media who have started their professional careers in starting by working in the toughest broadcasts in the world.

ATR: Accommodation is going to be an issue for everyone in Sochi. People just won’t have the same experience that they had in London or Vancouver for example.

YE: It is a big challenge because these infrastructures were not there. We know very well to run a proper level of accommodation for the Olympic Games is one thing, to build the buildings, another thing is to run the accommodation properly.

This remains an important challenge for the organizing committee and for the accommodation partners, and that’s a main area that has been the focus of the IOC and the organizing committee from day one. We knew that this was a fundamental challenge and I think it will remain until the very end.

ATR: What can you say about Rio de Janeiro? How is your planning there?

YE: Actually not deeply yet for us. The very deep engagement starts around three years before the Games. What we are monitoring now especially with Rio is the development of the International Broadcast Center plan. This is important and this they have to get right from the beginning.

There have been several changes in the plans from the beginning. Last November the committee came with a new plan that would be supported by investors and have legacy use which is important so we agreed to help the committee to practically redesign the whole building so that it both serves the Games properly and facilitate the building for the future use.

I’m proud to say we reached a common understanding and a common plan which is very good for all the uses. I wish this will go according to plan, because this is very important. For us the IBC is the most important venue of the games.

We plan for our first broadcasters briefing for next August which will be the first discussion and meeting for all the rights holders. It’s not a big broadcasters meeting, it’s a briefing primarily for broadcasters with a big operation, but it will the first introduction for rights holders of the Games.

ATR: What about beautiful pictures from Rio de Janeiro, will the broadcasters maybe a challenge to work with there, but the pictures?

YE: Rio is for us a highly interesting challenge; we are fascinated to be working in Rio. Yes there will be problems and there will be challenges. But it is one of the few cities in the world that is as photogenic and as colorful, both of the natural surroundings the build out of the city, but most importantly the people themselves.

We have to find a way to manage to do justice to the city and put both of them in the proper perspective in the shots. We need to cover competitions first, but we need to design our productions in a way that they will really show to the world how the city looks and what’s more, to convey something of the very special atmosphere of the city.

There is a certain vibe to this place. It’s absolutely extraordinary. It would be a pity to think that we will not manage regardless of what the challenges will be to capture that. We have a lot of ambition for Rio. It’s a city that triggers you to do very ambitious things.

Reported by Ed Hula

20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.