Olympic eye candy: CBC plans to make more with less in coverage of Paris 2024

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The visuals promise to be sensational, the time zone amenable and the atmosphere fully vibrant — as is usually the case with a European-based Olympics.

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And a return to “normal” after two COVID-hampered Games is perhaps the most enticing backdrop to Paris 2024, both for CBC and a captive Canadian audience back at home.

For the most part, Canadian viewers will once again be able to feast on the vast menu offered at a Summer Games, but not without some lingering fallout from the COVID-muddled versions of Beijing 2022 and Tokyo 2021, two versions that may have forever altered the way the global sporting spectacle is broadcast.

For CBC (and its French sister Radio Canada), the most notable challenge that awaits is producing and airing a vast array of content with an in-France staff of roughly 200 people, half the number employed at the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016.

It’s the fresh reality of the broadcast world, a combination of budget pressure and demands by Paris organizers for rights holders to “reduce their footprint” in the bustling City of Lights.

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“Those COVID Games did teach us a lot about what could be done remotely,” said Chris Wilson, CBC’s executive director, sports and Olympics. “It’s not just us. It’s every broadcaster around the world. We have learned a lot about some roles that can be done at home. Technology has obviously helped that to some extent.”

While a tall order, given the scope of a Summer Games and the vast number of venues spread throughout the city and beyond, Wilson and his team has had to be strategically creative in its approach to producing the best of Paris. So, to pull it off, the majority of play-by-play action will be called from a Toronto studio with swimming, track and field and basketball the only sports emanating “live” with on-air crews calling the action from France.

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Fronting the on-site team will be Olympic veteran Scott Russell, who will be working his last Olympics for the public broadcaster.

From his broadcast perch with the iconic Eiffel Tower as the backdrop, Russell will host Paris Live (12 p.m. — 6 p.m. ET) the on-air gatekeeper in a time slot where many of the most anticipated events of these Games will be contested.

“In a perfect world, would we love to have everybody there? Absolutely,” Wilson said. “Most people would prefer to be in Paris. Obviously everybody has learned that for the most part technology has allowed the commentators to have the angles and information they need to do a good job. The audience is understanding. And from a cost and environmental standpoint you just can’t send everybody.

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“We make the best choices that we could with the budget that we have. We’re still really confident that the product will be excellent. But it is a change from even eight years ago (in Rio.)”

Despite the harsh realities of the broadcast world in 2024, it is on with the show in Paris, one in which the pictures, the stories and the commentary figure to be spectacular.

CBC will produce more than 3,000 hours of live programming across multiple platforms, including the CBC Gem streaming services, the network’s Paris 2024 website and app as well as partner networks TSN and Sportsnet.

Canadian viewers can get an early 6 a.m. ET start with Olympic Morning hosted by former speedskater Anastasia Bucsis on-site in Paris at Canada Olympic House. Olympic Games Primetime (7 p.m. to 2 a.m. ET) will be hosted by Andi Petrillo back home in Toronto.

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With CBC’s own cameras supplemented by the extensive offerings of the IOC’s Olympic Broadcasting Services, the look should be incredible. The modern Olympics are all about creating a made-for-TV scene that serves viewers well and Paris figures to have extraordinary backdrops at many venues.

“Visually it’s going to be stunning,” Wilson said. “It’s such an aspirational city to begin with — so many people love Paris or want to go to Paris or dream about going to Paris — the way the organizing committee has decided to make the city the canvas of the sporting venues is really pretty inspiring.

“Almost every venue is going to have some stunning eye candy that is going to make it must-see TV.”

Russell believes a European Games always brings a special element to the proceedings. And given that the roots can be traced to the inaugural Olympic Congress of 1894 at the Sorbonne University, the sense of history will be strong.

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“It’s the heartland of the Olympic movement,” Russell said. “The Games were envisioned in Paris in 1894. The huge crowds will be there. I remember being in London in 2012 and the tremendous response there was in that Olympic city.

“Paris is going to host for the third time. It just feels very Olympic. The heart of the movement is in Europe and I’m very excited about all that that brings to the landscape of these Games.”

Like many, Russell felt that the previous two Games had something lacking, a sense exacerbated by the fact that he was broadcasting from back home in Toronto — the plight of many of his colleagues again in Paris.

“The last two Olympics, both winter and summer in Beijing and Tokyo, it felt like there was just something missing,” Russell said. “To go to Paris and have the possibility of a renaissance kind of Games in the city where the modern Olympics were first envisioned has the potential to be something special.”

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Despite some of the limitations in personnel, CBC’s well-earned reputation as elite Olympic broadcasters figures to continue with exhaustive coverage from Paris.

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With the changing landscape in sports broadcasting — and more specifically the manner in which Olympic viewers consume content — CBC and other broadcasters are forever flexible in how they utilize various platforms. Sprinkled through the various channels, conventional and otherwise, the broadcaster is preparing to air 22 hours of Olympic action per day.

With online alternatives as well as feeds shuttled over to Gem, viewers can catch live, full-event coverage of a vast array of sports while switching to the main network for the conventional Olympic formula Canadian viewers have embraced for decades.

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“It’s clear that’s something the company takes a lot of pride in, the Gem environment and the streaming platform,” Wilson said. “If you are a hardcore judo or fencing fan and you want to watch, in large part you are going to be able to do that.

“For a curated experience, you can do that on the main channel.”

Regardless of the feed, the viewing experience figures to be a strong one, an iconic Summer Games that for the first time in eight years will have the full-on Olympic look and feel.

“When I talk to athletes, the first thing out of their mouths, without exception, is that there will be fans,” Russell said. “The thing I’ve learned over time with athletes is, yes, they are competitors but the are also performers and they love to perform before a crowd.

“That make all the difference to them and it makes the difference to all of us telling their stories. It adds that extra layer which really takes it off the page.

“The pomp and circumstance in Paris is going to be terrific and the athletes are going to feel that.”

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