With PyeongChang 2018 just over a year a way, one of the biggest new Olympic television partners has started discussing how it might implement wearables and biometrics to enhance its multi-platform coverage.
Eurosport, owned by Discovery Communications, recently announced its new rights deal with the International Olympic Committee, which makes it the “new Home of the Olympic Games in Europe.” The multi-national television broadcaster promises, much like NBC this past summer, to make every minute of the upcoming Winter Games in South Korea available to fans. But Eurosport, a recent BAMTech partner, is also looking to bolster its new IOC deal with some tech-savvy moves.
Eurosport CEO Peter Hutton recently made his hopes for the company’s tech-based Winter Olympic coverage public in a recent interview with Around The Rings.
Hutton wants Eurosport’s broadcasts to include a ton of information provided from athlete’s wearables. Heart rate monitoring data could be a major component. Hutton sees downhill skiing coverage as much more than waiting for split times. He hopes to show detailed times about where athletes gain and lose ground throughout the entire race, including intricate details of how long athletes keep their skis off the slope.
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Eurosport’s PyeongChang 2018 coverage aims to offer European fans much more technical analysis. Hutton sees wearables as an amazing way to enhance the storytelling of the games. And he wants all the biometric data available to be displayed for viewers as often as possible.
“The sport I think is a perfect example is biathlon,” Hutton told Around The Rings. “Where one amazing thing about biathlon is the way that an athlete’s heart rate is at its highest when its doing cross-country skiing, and then it drops to its lowest to shoot. And to show that on screen, to show what an athlete’s heart rate is doing, I think is a really good way of dramatizing that sport.”
Many athletes currently use wearable technology to help them train and improve, making Eurosport’s biggest hurdle in relaying that information to audiences less of a technical challenge, and more of rights concern. But the European media giant plans to work with Olympic Broadcasting Services to help implement these innovations.
Eurosport’s partnership with the IOC, valued at $1.45 billion according to the Associated Press, is set to last through 2024 and will include four Olympic Games.