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Major public broadcasters and the International Olympic
Committee share a desperate need to wean themselves away from their aging
viewership. Both are trying to be hip to a younger crowd by making pacts with
digital and wooing them with interactive options. The pending Tokyo Games,
played behind closed doors, will be the largest scale attempt yet to bring
gamification of live sports to Gen Z.
https://amplify.nabshow.com/articles/is-the-gamification-of-the-olympics-the-way-to-go/
For the IOC the writing has been on the wall for a decade.
It’s why it began dedicating more effort into streaming and digital content
back in 2012. It’s why IOC President Thomas Bach struck a $1.3 billion deal
with Discovery to be the gatekeeper for all Olympics content in Europe from
2018-2024.
Speaking to Euro Sport, he stressed that younger
people’s viewing habits would shape much of the content, in particular their
consumption of content via smartphones.
Tokyo 2020’s official mobile app
At the time, David Zaslav, president and CEO of Discovery
Communications, said its “Mobile and direct-to-consumer platforms can reach
more than 700 million people across Europe. This agreement will bring the
Olympics Games to more viewers on more screens than ever before.”
That boast was backed up only last week by Andrew Georgiou,
Discovery president of Sports, who told IBC 365, “This is our first summer
Olympic games and we definitely want it viewed by more people across Europe
than any other Games in history. We’ll achieve it because we’ve got the breadth
of coverage.”
And he’s not likely to be wrong. A new survey carried
out by AdColony found that nearly half of fans plan to watch the
rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Games on a mobile device. In addition, the majority are
set to multitask on their mobile while watching the Games and most intriguingly
the study found that the audience is expected to skew toward 63% females versus
35% males.
Growing Digital Engagement
Core to the IOC’s agenda over the next five years is to “Grow
digital engagement with people,” and since 70% of all IOC revenue is derived
from broadcast rights sales it is the ability of broadcast partners to reach
youth audiences which is vital for its continued relevance.
Hence the battery of digital and gamified products being
thrown at the wall from Tokyo. Just like host broadcaster Olympic Broadcasting
Services experiments with AI and 5G at this Olympics, it has a is issuing a
range of data and graphics driven gimmicks to see which ones will stick with
the elusive millennial the most.
“Our ambition is to bring the magic of the athletes’
achievements to the world on an unprecedented scale,” says OBS CEO Yiannis
Exarchos in an extensive official guide.
“Technology is going to play a critical role and allow us to
bring fans ‘inside the venue’ virtually. The IOC and OBS believe these new
digital innovations will leave a legacy which we will build on at future
editions of the Olympic Games.”
Hit the Cheer Button
With fans barred entry, effort is being made to make them
feel virtually present. For example, the reactions of fans watching back home
will be displayed in five-second video selfies on a video matrix inside the
venue, to give athletes something to respond to.
A virtual “cheer” button will be embedded on several
broadcasters’ digital platforms. Fans can watch the broadcast feed of an
Olympic event and virtually clap or cheer by clicking the button. The system
collects all the cheers and renders a global map of “cheer activity.” The map
is sent as a video stream to broadcasters and showcased on venue video boards.
OBS will produce 30% more content compared to Rio 2016, much
of this headed to digital platforms. Digital publishers can draw on a
repository of up to 9000 clips and short-form assets called Content+. This
includes behind-the-scenes content from the competition venues and further
content filmed with smartphones. Additionally, OBS plans to produce 1800 fast
turnaround clips from all sports for digital consumption.
The Tokyo 2020 FanZone
It will create 180- and 360-degree content specifically for
Virtual Reality which Discovery (among rights holders) will distribute in
Europe and will augment a number of events with graphics or tracking technology
including a claimed first-of-its-kind broadcast enhancement using AI and
computer vision to overlay visualizations during the athletics sprint events.
In another breakthrough, the coverage of the archery
competition will provide biometric data from miniature sensors worn by the
archers. The monitor’s receptors will detect the heart rate and transmit the
data wirelessly to generate the on-screen television graphics.
“Audiences will be able to witness the heartbeat variations
and adrenaline rush experienced by the archers as they shoot their arrow,” OBS
says.
Twitch Sidecasting
Broadcasters are also making extensive digital deals for
Olympic coverage. Discovery is pumping out bespoke content to Snap, Instagram
and Facebook and NBC has a deal with Amazon-owned Twitch to produce
and deliver live content. This includes “game-ified pre-Olympic activations,
Olympic athlete interviews and Olympic-themed gaming competitions.”
“Twitch viewers tune in not only to watch their favorite
athletes but to also take part in pre and post-game interviews and virtually
connect with other fans from around the world,” said Michael Aragon, Chief
Content Officer at Twitch.
The most interesting activation, for its merger of the
linear and the nonlinear sportscast is what NBC calls Primetime Sidecasting.
During the primetime block of shows on NBC, Twitch creators will be
commentating live on a companion interactive broadcast that encourages
co-viewing of the nightly primetime broadcast on NBC. Twitch creators, watching
off-camera NBC’s primetime coverage of the Games, will invite viewers to submit
discussion topics in line with what anchors and guests are covering on the linear
channel.
The overall aim is to attract advertisers to Twitch’s
“robust youthful audience” with Olympic content with both parties NBC sharing
in the ad revenue.
On top of this there is the Tokyo 2020 FanZone,
described by the IOC as an “interactive gamification experience” available
online on official Olympics digital channels.
eSports To Save the Day?
A Trivia game is focused on pulling in Gen Z with prizes up
for grabs. A Magic Moments product seems to be a highlights reel plucked from
the archive. Another initiative, Fantasy Challenge, asks fans to create a team
by selecting their 10 favorite athletes from individual sports. They can start
a league with friends or join an existing one to compete against other teams.
This will no doubt reach its apotheosis in Paris 2024 when
competitive computer gaming is expected to become an official Olympic event.
The path to eSports inclusion has already been laid when the Intel Extreme
Masters Pyeongchang was broadcast on the Olympic Channel and had partial
support from the International Olympic Committee ahead of the 2018 Winter
Games. Five Korean League of Legends players bore the Olympic torch during its
journey through South Korea, marking another first in the relationship between
the Games and competitive gaming.
The fast-growing eSports industry doesn’t need Olympic
certification as much as the IOC needs the eSports stamp of approval.
The IOC is “a 19th century organization trying to deal with
a 21st century phenomenon,” said former IOC VP and chairman of the OBS board, Dick
Pound.
He was trying to counter resistance to including eSports in
the movement. Though he warned against the inclusion of violent computer games.
“We can get taken to the cleaners in a major hurry if we’re not very careful
about this.”
At the same event, Thomas Bach reiterated that the IOC had
to connect with hundreds of millions of gamers worldwide if the Olympic body is
to remain relevant with the younger generation.
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