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6 YOUR TAKE Tokyo 2021

Last issue, we featured a look at broadcast preparations for the world’s biggest celebration of sports. Since then, the Tokyo Olympics has been postponed till next summer, but Olympic Broadcasting Services is still ready to go THE OLYMPIC TORCH SHINES ON

e at Olympic Broadcasting Services made an early decision to have our employees stay home and stay safe as soon as the effects of the pandemic became apparent in Spain more than four weeks ago. We are pleased to report that we are all fine, as well as the 100+ staff we already had working in Tokyo. We haven’t had any diagnosed cases of Covid-19, and our thoughts are with the global community as we all navigate these extraordinary circumstances. The first thing we had to address was reorganising ourselves to be agile and work remotely. We were pleased, because we already had technology in place that would allow this to happen for OBS and the Olympic Channel. We have been very committed to the side of digital transformation and believing

that technology now provides incredible opportunities for us to do things in a far more efficient way. There has been a massive adoption of remote working from people and companies around the world, using tools to do things without necessarily having any physical presence in one particular space at all. This is at the heart of what we have been planning and designing for the Olympics. I don’t think the world, from a working point of view, will ever be the same. In terms of the postponement of the Games, as we are part of the IOC (International Olympic Committee), we were involved with some of the earliest internal discussions surrounding the impact. Once it was announced, our fundamental priority was to get in touch with our rights-holding broadcasters to advise them about the information related to the postponement, as well consider how we planned to adapt to the situation. We obviously didn’t have all of the answers yet – and we still don’t – but as the host broadcaster of the Games, we will do whatever it takes to keep the operations on track and unaffected for the next year and to support them as much as possible. We also reached out immediately to the hundreds of companies and thousands of professionals contracted for the Olympics and made a pledge to renew our collaboration for next year. I am humbled by the commitment, dedication and support we have received from them, especially under these challenging circumstances for the industry. This is further proof of the unique power of the Olympic Games to

YIANNIS EXARCHOS CEO of Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS)

I DON’T THINK THE WORLD, FROM A WORKING POINT OF VIEW, WILL EVER BE THE SAME

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