THE BIGGER PICTURE

ATHLETICS ENJOYS HEALTHY COVERAGE ON TV BUT IT MUST MOVE WITH THE CHANGING TIMES IF THIS IS GOING TO CONTINUE, SAYS DAVE GORDON

DAVE GORDON

DAVE GORDON

Athletics receives coverage which makes it the envy of other Olympic sports

SHUTTERSTOCK

A PART from having to stay up until the early hours, there was much to celebrate and little to complain about when it came to the televised coverage of athletics in Rio last summer.

All the drama, including Mo Farah’s epic gold medal-winning performances, was brilliantly captured using the Olympic host broadcaster’s state-of-the-art core coverage. There were more than enough camera angles to show almost every nuance and incident, plus the BBC had some of its own cameras to add a unique British slant on events.

We can expect more compelling action to the same high standard next summer at London 2017. When the world’s broadcasters gathered last month for a pre-production meeting, they would have had few fears about the core athletics coverage. It was principally the logistics they focused on.

Two production companies, Sunset & Vine and Filmnova, joined forces and were appointed the host broadcaster by UK Athletics last year in a competitive tender process. They will use all their experience and knowledge of the sport to provide viewers around the world with that “best seat in the stadium” perspective.

Yes, there may well be small differences in approach but all will be conscious of the importance of “geography” and ensuring viewers can always see the “big picture”.

Coverage of the 400m is a textbook example of where you ideally need to see all eight runners all of the time. Audiences should not be disorientated by the use of too many close-ups – I must confess that it’s one thing that has me shouting at the television!