Warner Bros. Discovery will centralize its Paris 2024 coverage with splashy open-air production hub offering panoramic views and ample studio space, as the newly-merged media company marks its first Olympic Games.
Nicknamed WBD House and built atop Paris’ Hotel Raphaël – a five-star haven just off the Champs Élysées that was last seen playing itself the 2022 HBO miniseries “Irma Vep” – the rooftop facility will anchor commentary in 13 markets, and houses four studios and three stand-up positions, with each vantage presenting a different, post-card view of the Parisian skyline – and thus many of this year’s competition sites.
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“More immersive storytelling is the most innovative way we can help audiences really enjoy the Olympics,” WBD Sports exec Scott Young said at the venue on the eve of the opening ceremony. “And once we saw how the Paris 2024 organizing committee used so many of the city’s amazing backdrops as venues, we then had to follow suit.”
With 190 on-site crew-members technicians, the four-studio set-up should make for greater flexibility, allowing different programs from different markets to benefit from the same sets – and then to switch up backgrounds from day to day.
Pairing those production value with access, the WBD House hub will be home base for WBD’s pay-tv group Eurosport and will anchor CNN’s Paris perch. This one-stop-shop will also hope to lure top guests with time efficiency, letting commentators traverse the globe with a simple stroll, or to kick back at a lounge should they opt to linger.
“An athlete or VIP guest can hit up to seven or eight markets by walking across this rooftop,” says Young. “So instead of getting back in a car and going to the next location, they can do the UK, Sweden, Italy or Poland, France, Germany, CNN, and Norway, and then get back in the lift and walk out the door. That’s the real superpower of what we’ve been able to do here.”
Turning the Hotel Raphaël’s top two floors into a global control room was an Olympian task all on its own, as the WBD team cleared off 78 tons of existing infrastructure – the equivalent in weight to a space shuttle, Young is quick to note – in order to make room for another 42 tons of equipment. Just days before the opening ceremony, two-dozen trucks delivered 23 camera, 15 miles of cable, and reams of specialty material, including a telescopic super-jib shipped out from TNT Sports in Atlanta.
Now perched atop hotel, that super-jib can extend and swoop across the Paris skyline, complementing a live, Eiffel Tower backdrop with AR-assisted graphics and game analysis.
Indeed, ‘innovation’ is the key word this year, as the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) uses real-time, motion-capture technologies to expand the visual language of sportscasting (with gymnastics a particular beneficiary), all while streaming services deliver granular and focused coverage in ways previously impossible through linear broadcast.
Promising wall-to-wall coverage of the upcoming games, WBD’s pay-tv banner Eurosport will broadcast 3,800 live hours including all 329 medal events, with all 32 Olympic sports given a dedicated page through Max or Discovery+, depending on the territory.
“Fans can follow the major stories as [as they see fit, without waiting for linear broadcast],” says Young. “Fans of key sports can watch the live content and move on to the next event, while fans of immersive sports, like gymnastics, will want to find out everything that happens [in that domain] and stay there.”
Having launched in Gaul this past June, Max is still new to the French market – so a splashy and sophisticated operation such WBD House might be key for the ongoing rollout.
“The media landscape is quite classic,” says Young, “Our challenge is to educate audiences. Telling the story in the very best possible way, with the right storytellers, and making it readily accessible to audiences [will do just that]. We know people will come to Max for the Olympic Games and suddenly find all of our other content.”
