Feature: Sport and Broadcast Facilities  

In the first of a two-part feature, Sport and Technology's editor Rachael Church talks to leading sports facilities providers Charter Broadcast, Gearhouse and Globecast about the issues currently affecting their industry

Reputation is paramount in attracting new facilities contracts according to David Carr, managing director of Charter Broadcast, one of the world's largest providers of multi-standard television equipment to broadcasters based on the flight pack format. Says Carr: "A lot of people come to us because of our reputation and our track record and they have worked with us in the past, but in this competitive market you also have to go out and be proactive."

Tendering for facilities contracts

While facilities companies often contract directly with broadcasters, they can also be contracted by independent production companies. "Or we might contract with sports rights holders," adds Carr. "But 80% of our work comes from the mainstream broadcasters."
In the case of the 2003 Cricket World Cup, Gearhouse's client was rights holder CSI Octagon. Gearhouse's role included technical co-ordination between Octagon CSI and it's other facility suppliers and all the venues and the provision and control of technical standards for the event. Gearhouse had staff relocated to South Africa to project manage all technical aspects of the project for Octagon CSI.
Gearhouse is also a partner in Athens Broadcast services, a one-stop service primarily for non-rights holders during the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Gearhouse's partners in the venture are Globecast and production company Stefi Productions. Athens-based Stefi Productions will offer access to studios, accommodation, live location back drops, production offices, production staff, transport, security and warehousing. Gearhouse's equipment rental stock will be available for rental throughout the duration of the Olympics and the company will provide access to technical and production crew and facilities, including a senior project director based in Athens. Meanwhile, Globecast will provide worldwide satellite transmissions, uplinking facilities, playout, conversion, encoding and mobile SNG facilities for global broadcasters. The company's Broadcast Base will offer work spaces, a comprehensive MCR for uplink and play-out facilities and control of the studios, edit suites and radio facilities.
Globecast itself has a variety of working relationships with federations, rights holders and broadcasters. It is the exclusive satellite services provider to CSI Octagon, works on UEFA's Champions League with TEAM and also provides services to TWI on a sport by sport basis for the latter. On the federation side, it has supplied services to the International Tennis Federation for the Davis and Federations Cups. Other clients include the Euro 2004 soccer championships, Roland Garros and the 2003 IAAF World Championships in Paris. Like other facilities companies, Globecast is sometimes approached with offers of contracts or bids for work itself.
"Market-share is becoming the holy grail," says Pitt from Globecast. "With everyone paying less including for rights fees, there is less money available to spend on distribution. People are becoming more desperate to win business."
Donlan adds a note of realism: "We can't compete with Joe Bloggs in a truck who turns up on a Saturday to cover a Premiership match and then goes home again on a Sunday. We don't do that. We take time to build things because they are for very specific uses." And Moorhouse is happy to note that: "There are still some broadcasters prepared to pay more for higher quality services than go with the cheaper, smaller lesser-known companies."
Moorhouse says that bidding process for facilities contracts can be pretty cut-throat. "However, once you are on a job and another company needs to hire a monitor then we will help each other out." Charter's Carr agrees: "We're all competitors but at the same time we all help each other out by cross-hiring kit from each other [at events]. It's a very complicated flow-path where relationships are important."
In the case of a major sports event such as the FIFA World Cup, bidding for facilities contracts can begin two and a half years before the event. A contract might be awarded 18 months in advance and then as the event approaches, the finer details get sorted out as the project gathers momentum. Often the level of equipment is not decided until nearer an event says Moorhouse because "it might come down to how well a swimming team is performing. That affects broadcaster decisions on what they might cover, which could be different to that at the previous event."
At the time of writing, bidding was underway for contracts relating to the 2006 and 2008 Olympics, but there were still opportunities in Athens 2004.

Next month, Sport and Technology looks at how broadcaster's budget cuts are affecting the facilities market and asks key facilities players how they see technology having an impact on the future of their industry.

Rachael Church - Editor

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