Broadcasters and partners meet to discuss content creation and distribution plans for European Championships

3 min. read
25/01/2018

Representatives came together with the organisers and Host Cities of the 2018 European Championships to discuss the content creation...

Representatives from some of Europe's leading broadcasters and federations came together with the organisers and Host Cities of the 2018 European Championships at the EBU’s HQ in Geneva this week to discuss the content creation and distribution plans for the inaugural multisport event.

Eurovision Media Services (EMS), the business arm of the EBU, will be acting as host broadcaster for the event through its subsidiary European Production Coordination and will be responsible for distributing the event to rights-holding media organisations worldwide.

The European Championships (EC2018) is a major new multisport event taking place every four years, supported by Europe’s free-to-air broadcasters, which aggregates the existing senior continental championships of Athletics (European Athletics), Aquatics (LEN), Cycling (UEC), Gymnastics (UEG), Rowing (FISA), Triathlon (ETU), with a new Golf Team Championships (ET & LET) – all unified under a common brand.

The 2-day EC2018 Content Workshop took place on 22-23 January 2018. Day 1 focused on aligning the production philosophy for the event and coordinating the host broadcasting services offered by EMS.

"It's an exciting but complex event. Seven sports will be taking place in 14 venues in Berlin and Glasgow. The challenge for Directors of this event will be to capture the spirit of each individual sport while showing consistency across all sports to audiences watching at home. We're discussing cameras, graphics, music, and other elements to ensure we produce the most exciting footage for viewers," says Franck Choquard, the project lead from EMS.

Audiences now expect to access content anywhere, anytime and on any device. Day 2 of the Workshop concentrated on how to produce compelling content for different broadcast and online outlets managed by the various stakeholders such as broadcasters, athletes and sponsors.

"Over the next few months we will continue to develop and enrich our digital tools to make sure that stakeholders can easily access and curate the content they need for their audiences," says Louis Matignon, Multiplatform Solutions Manager, Eurovision Media Services.

Glasgow and Berlin will host the first ever edition of the European Championships in the summer of 2018 and the EBU already has agreements with almost 40 broadcasters worldwide to cover the event. There will be over 400 hours of programming across television, radio and online, free to air in all the main markets, with an anticipated 2,700 hours of television coverage across the event.

Director of EBU Sport Stefan Kuerten said: “It was important to bring broadcasters together with other stakeholders to hear the latest plans for this exciting new event.  Public service media will be at the heart of the European Championships – bringing it to wide audiences across the continent – and it is our role to make sure they are fully engaged and involved in the evolution of the event.”