YIANNIS EXARCHOS is the CEO of Olympic Broadcasting Services. He took over the top position at the permanent host broadcast organization in '12 following the London Games. OBS was created by the IOC in '01 to serve as the host broadcasting organization for all Olympic Games. Exarchos has served as a top exec for all Olympic host broadcasters since the 2004 Athens Games. The Greek native recently talked to SBD Global about the creation of a new digital Olympic TV channel, which is scheduled to launch in April, as well as engaging a younger audience and the importance of shareable content.
On the idea behind the Olympic TV channel...
Yiannis Exarchos: The starting point is the feeling that even though during the Olympic Games the world of sports, the world of Olympic sports gets the most exposure any event has in the world. I mean, the Olympic Games remain the most watched event in the world. It is also very clear that in the periods in between a number of sports get less exposure. If you go beyond some premium, very commercialized sports, the majority of sports are struggling to find a space, at least on mainstream television. On the other hand, I think that there is a general recognition that the influence of sports in society in today’s world can and should be very positive on several different fronts. On the front of first of all health, the developed world is practically going through a plague of obesity. The space available for young people to exercise is less and less because of the density of urban spaces. People spend so much time doing other things and not having enough time to exercise. Also, we know from the Olympics how valuable sports can be in terms of the values that they bring in -- self-discipline, cooperation with others, respect of your competitors, respect of people coming from whichever background, respect for people with different political ideas, cultural origins, religions and so on. ... I think it’s important that people not just perceive this as yet another sports channel, a channel where you can simply get one competition event after the other. That in a certain sense exists today in the world, but we want to associate sports with the values, at least the Olympic values that come with it. ... A third key objective is to specifically target, approach and bring closer to the world of sports a younger generation which seems not to be engaging in sports with the intensity that one would expect or one would hope. We know that the way to engage with those younger generations is through intelligent use of audio-visual means.
On approaching a younger audience...
Exarchos: This needs to be done through all different forms. First and foremost, obviously, in the form of content. This is not a channel primary about the people, who are committed to sports. This will endeavor to be a channel to bring people into sports. We want to use sports events as an opportunity, an occasion for us to tell the story of people, especially of the athletes. We believe that people identify primarily through human stories, so we want to combine competition with human background, human stories. Why the big heroes of the sports engage in the sport? What does it really take to be in the world of sports, both physically and mentally? To show and share the mechanics of the sport, how does a sport really work? On the level of content it will be a network not just of objective coverage of sports but an effort of combining sports coverage with actual television and especially with storytelling; getting people to identify with the stories of the big figures in sports -- of the sport of today, the past and potentially of the future.
On the importance of social networks...
Exarchos: We know very well that the way content is distributed and consumed today is also very important. This is why from the get-go of the channel we are thinking about ways of making this content first of all available through means that are relevant primarily to the young people of today. And those are not necessarily the traditional means of traditional broadcasting. We understand that launching on digital will take very special care about the digital experience that we will be offering through all available digital platforms. Young people today are very much used to consuming audio-visual content on the go, anywhere they are, at any given point in time. They don’t necessarily stay for hours watching one event. They consume very short snaps of audio-visual material. They want to comment on it. They want to share it with their friends and peers. All those elements with respect to the distribution of the content are fundamental in the build-out of the channel. The word share and shareability will be one key component. We are big believers in the power of the emerging media, especially social networks, in the distribution and dissemination of audio-visual content. It is okay to be using the term Olympic channel because I think that resonates with people but it would be a mistake to simply think of it as just one linear traditional channel. I’m sure it will also have linear versions but one needs to think more about digital market platform, working on different levels and working on some different levels in terms of localization and primarily in terms of personalization. Those I believe are the things that can make a difference and can somehow show that this channel is not just a sports channel, it’s more of a personalized experience.
On creating a new digital experience...
Exarchos: The IOC has already started during the last years -- I would like here to particularly highlight our own MARK ADAMS, who is leading the communications department of the IOC -- doing things on the digital front. Those assets will be the start for the channel as well. … However, the channel will be on an entirely new level. It will do all this with much more intensity and exploiting all the emerging opportunities that digital media is offering. It will not just be a posting of some short clips or some short form of video. It will have many different ways of associating content with comments, with words, with data, with historical videos and so on, and again in a personalized form. We believe that what we are trying to do is not necessarily a solution you can buy off the shelf. … We have somehow to build this solution ourselves and for that we need very experienced people. We need very experienced partner companies. … There aren’t any thoughts about selecting one partner. We have an established relationship with many partners around the world. But the issue here is that this is not going to be an operation within one broadcast market. It has to be for the whole world. … We will be working a lot with our rights-holding broadcasters in the different territories.
On the benefits of an Olympic TV channels...
Exarchos: For the vast majority of the international federations, it’s a no-brainer. They understand that the IOC’s central position can offer to them a robust platform for the promotion of sports. Many of them are struggling to do singular events on their own and it’s not easy by streaming one event on your website to achieve the kind of exposure, the kind of promotions that you would like to have. However, a robust platform with good international distribution, with lots of partners around the world is activation on a different level.
There are many events, even big events, that don’t really get worldwide distribution and there the channel can really help in terms of actually creating markets around the world, especially today in the world of such fast emerging markets in many parts of the world and clearly it’s an opportunity for events, even national events to find a place. We have spoken with a number of National Olympic Committees, and there are some National Olympic Committees that actually hold rights to many national championships in their countries. Some of those events are actually very important, even beyond the borders of the country. … We will be very much looking in a few key territories for a sort of three-part cooperation between the Olympic channel, the Olympic rights holder in the country and the National Olympic Committee of the country to create national versions, localized versions of the channel, both on the digital front and potentially also on traditional television.
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