MOST SUCCESSFUL SPORTS EVENT BROADCAST
2023 EuroLeague Final Four – IMG Productions
The 2023 EuroLeague Final Four is the showpiece finale and culmination of an eight-month season of elite European basketball to determine the new EuroLeague champion. Held in basketball-mad Kaunas, this week-long event saw palpable drama as Real Madrid defeated Olympiacos with a last gasp basket to snatch the title.
The coverage was revolutionised in every department. With a holistic approach to content production, millions of fans around the world were brought closer than ever to the action utilising both linear and digital platforms.
The World Feed featured 24 cameras, from regular and super-slomo to a wide array of highly specialised cameras supported by an innovative broadcast graphics package containing multiple 3D environments and an out-of-this-world Augmented Reality show, giving viewers a truly unique and stunning visual experience. Complementing the World Feed, an incredible slate of supplementary programming and content with unprecedented levels of access; featuring presenter led behind-the-scenes shows, world-first feature content, highlights, promos, refcams, and an alternative commentary player Vodcast gave viewers an all-encompassing way to enjoy the biggest event in European basketball.
This provided the perfect combination for unparalleled coverage and saw Kaunas 2023 the most successful and well received Final Four to date.
BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 – BLAST
In May this year, BLAST delivered the BLAST.tv Paris Major, which is the biggest and most popular esports event of the calendar year. 24 of the world’s best teams descended on the French capital to compete for a $1.25 million prize pool and a chance at claiming the title of the world’s best Counter-Strike team.
The Paris Major became the biggest esports event in France’s history, drawing over 50,000 fans to the Accor Arena across four days of action packed esports, posted the third highest peak viewership of all time at 1.5 million viewers and was broadcast globally in more than 100+ territories and in 24 different languages.
ESL Pro League Season 17 – ESL Faceit Group
Renowned as the world’s leading professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competition, the ESL Pro League attracts CS:GO’s top players, all vying for bragging rights and a substantial prize pool. Recognising the importance of captivating fans throughout the intense competition, ESL Pro League took a revolutionary approach to its Season 17 broadcast setup during 5 action-packed weeks in Malta.
Season 17 Broadcast Hub was introduced. The innovative concept combined an analysts’ suite, commentary corner, players’ lounge, and practice area in an open-plan broadcast layout. The layout encouraged casual interaction among pundits, casters, team members, and players, producing an engaging event broadcast with players commentating on other teams’ matches, enhancing the broadcast experience for fans, and those who had just competed joining the casters in the analysts’ suite to analyse their performance.
Behind-the-scenes content also flourished. Off-the-cuff interviews were straightforward thanks to the proximity of the player’s lounge; and outside gameplay, the Broadcast Hub played host to a hotly contested table tennis league and several Nerf-gun battles, all resulting in engaging content for fans. Such a collaborative environment was only made possible by the Broadcast Hub’s layout and saw consumer satisfaction exceed the previous season while social media engagement soared.
FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 – beIN MEDIA GROUP
beIN SPORTS, as official broadcaster of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022TM in the MENA region, was tasked with providing comprehensive and highly accessible coverage of the historic tournament.
With more than 20 state-of-the-art studios strategically located around Qatar, it complemented its existing linear channels with six new World Cup dedicated channels. beIN broadcast all 64 matches and more than 70 hours of in-house content, original documentaries, previews, on-site studio analysis, on-the-ground reporting locally and globally, and much more.
Providing 18+ hours of daily live coverage across each of its eight channels in Arabic, English and French, beIN assembled the most-decorated broadcast team ever, with more than 120 leading presenters, reporters, commentators, and analysts.
To make the World Cup as accessible as possible, beIN broadcast 22 matches live, including the curtain-raiser and final, on both its free-to-air channel and its official YouTube channel.
In total, the linear channels recorded more than 5.4bn cumulative views, while the final was watched by 242.8m viewers – equivalent of 68 per cent of MENA’s adult population. On YouTube, the final recorded cumulative viewership of 25m and set a regional record with 4.4m simultaneous viewers. On social, beIN generated 1.1bn video views and 5.5bn impressions.
Rugby League World Cup – BBC Sport
The RLWC was the biggest sporting event of the year and delivered all three tournaments at once for the first time in the competitions history.
With every one of the 61 matches of the World Cup to be shown somewhere across the BBC network or online platforms, it was the best served RLWC ever and praised for it’s social impact post event.
The BBC coverage of the event was comprehensive and delivered massive audiences for all three tournaments on network, iPlayer and the website. The tournament itself was hailed as triumph for social impact, with 96% of the public believing it delivered a positive social impact for the North of England, in a report published after the event.
DCMS Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Sport, Arts and Ceremonials Stuart Andrew praised the BBC’s broadcasts of the Rugby League World Cup in a Westminster Hall debate on the “contribution of the Rugby League World Cup 2022 to culture and sport in the UK”.
The coverage of all three tournaments raised the profile of the men’s game and brought massive new audiences to the women’s game and wheelchair rugby league.
