ITV is to sell its media and entertainment division, including its broadcast channels and ITVX streaming service, to Sky for £1.6 billion ($2.1bn), marking one of the most consequential restructurings in modern British broadcasting. The deal positions Sky, owned by Comcast, as the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster and creates a new domestic heavyweight designed to compete more aggressively with global streaming giants such as Netflix, Amazon and YouTube.
The move has been in train for a while and already has significant synergies in advertising technology. Comcast now shares with Sky, ITV and Channel 4 its Universal Ads marketplace which enables first time, small and medium-sized enterprises to create, buy, and measure premium TV advertising campaigns across the three broadcasters' sales houses.
Officially launched at the Cannes advertising festival last month, the pact between Comcast and the UK commercial broadcasters was announced over a year ago. It represents the first international expansion by Comcast for its self-service ads platform.
Sky chief executive Dana Strong called the transaction with ITV “a defining moment for British media,” arguing that consolidation is now essential as traditional broadcasters face intensifying competition and rapid shifts in viewing behaviour. ITV’s studio arm — the production powerhouse behind Love Island, I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! and Coronation Street — is not part of the sale and will instead be spun off as a standalone London‑listed company.
ITV will receive £1.2bn ($1.6bn) in cash on completion, plus up to £200m ($267m) in performance‑related add‑ons tied to 2027 advertising revenues. The broadcaster expects to return around £950m ($1.26) to shareholders. Sky has committed to spending £2.1bn ($2.8bn) on ITV Studios content between 2028 and 2032, safeguarding long‑running franchises and ensuring continuity for viewers. As ITV noted in the deal documents, “Viewers will continue to enjoy the shows they know and love,” including Coronation Street, This Morning, and News at Ten.
The takeover will undergo intense regulatory scrutiny. The merged ITV‑Sky advertising operation would command more than 70% of the UK TV ad market, a level of concentration likely to draw close attention from the Competition and Markets Authority and Ofcom. UK government Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has already signalled a willingness to intervene in major media mergers, and Ofcom is expected to examine issues around Sky News’ ownership and ITV’s stake in ITN, which produces ITV News, Channel 4 News and 5 News.
ITV remains legally required to provide free‑to‑air public service broadcasting until at least 2034, meaning Sky must honour obligations around peak‑time national news, regional output and UK production quotas. Analysts warn that significant job losses are likely as duplicated functions across the two organisations are rationalised.
The deal comes amid wider upheaval at Comcast, which last week announced plans to spin off its media assets — including Sky and NBCUniversal — into a separate publicly listed company. For ITV, the sale marks a strategic pivot away from the structural pressures facing traditional broadcasters. As ITV chair Andrew Cosslett put it, the transaction “secures ITV’s crucial role as a public service broadcaster” while giving the combined business the scale to compete globally.
The takeover is expected to complete in the second half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval. For now, ITV Studios will emerge as a pure‑play production company, while Sky gains a powerful new free‑to‑air platform — a reshaping of British television that would have been unthinkable just a decade ago.
How is artificial intelligence (AI) used on the African
continent and what are the specific demands of African countries? We survey
different countries in Africa and look at their AI needs and challenges.
Governments across the world are prioritizing AI as the
basis for national competitiveness and African countries are no different. A
rapidly growing number of programmes, strategies, and pilot projects are being
launched across the continent. As a result, public policy is being shaped to
address gaps in infrastructure and specialist skills that might limit these
countries’ ability to compete globally.
There are notable differences in the levels of economic
maturity, compute and internet capacity as well as institutional frameworks in
each country of this vast continent, but at the same time most of them share
the same concerns.
One of the main ones is a common belief that in order to be
independent of technologies trained elsewhere and or owned by third parties,
each state should ideally develop its own sovereign AI systems. These should be
engineered to reflect linguistic diversity, address the
requirements of informal economies as well as resource‑strained public
services.
A May 2026 study by PwC found that an overwhelming
majority of African organizations are already engaging with AI but also that
few had succeeded in building out the technology “in ways that generate
sustained growth, operational reinvention or competitive advantage.”
As AI rises up on the agenda, countries that invest in
inclusive strategies, automation, innovation, and broad AI education - backed
by serious funding and robust national policies - will be positioned to lead.
This article snapshots a selection of African countries and
their pathways to engaging with AI.
Kenya: from maternal chatbots to helping farmers
The Kenya AI Strategy 2025–2030 aims to establish
a strong digital infrastructure for AI. It outlines priority AI applications
envisioning, for instance, a maternal health chatbot conversant in local
dialects, AI-driven teaching systems and translating agriculture data into “farmer-friendly
audio formats in local languages.” However, as the strategy document makes
clear, current infrastructure limitations “could slow down AI adoption and
limit the scalability of AI driven solutions across the country.”
It also acknowledges that Kenya’s current regulatory
environment for AI is “fragmented”, causing “inconsistencies and
inefficiencies” in AI governance, in turn, “making it challenging to
create a cohesive strategy for AI development and deployment.”
“Like many countries, the government was initially slow to
act on AI governance,” says Monica Okoth, Assistant Manager in the
Electrotechnical & ICT Division at the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS).
“Policy makers didn’t fully understand the technology, so there were no
policies for a long time.” She says it was the private sector which led the
government to draw up an AI strategy and that KEBS was brought into the process
largely through private sector engagement.
Data ownership is a challenge
In particular, there are concerns about data ownership. Big
tech companies have previously collected indigenous knowledge or language data
without full disclosure, in addition to plundering the continent’s resources
for their requirements. (so-called techno-colonialism). “For example,
there was a case where biometric data was collected from communities without
proper government knowledge or transparency. The issue isn’t the data
collection itself since we need more data to reduce bias,” Okoth says, “but
ensuring full disclosure, consent, and clarity on how the data will be used.
Another concern is whether AI can take into account the
diversity of African populations. “Kenya has 42 languages, so developing models
for all of them would require huge investment,” she adds. “Because English and
Swahili are widely spoken, some therefore argue that we don’t urgently need
large language models (LLMs) in every indigenous language.”
Digital safety, privacy and security were part of a more
than USD 1 billion investment led by Microsoft and an Emirati AI
company to build and run a data centre for East Africa in Kenya’s Rift Valley.
The project promised to operate a “trusted data zone” under which local data
would be stored and governed by local laws.
However, since being announced in 2024, the project has yet
to kick off, with reports of development being tied up in red tape
and concerns about how much electricity from the grid is needed to run it.
Role of KEBS and standards
Recognizing the importance of international standards, KEBS
joined as a participating member of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42:
Artificial Intelligence, in 2020. “We pushed for standards to be embedded in
Kenya’s national AI strategy, because without them, implementation would be
weak,” Okoth explains. “One of the government pillars now includes developing
standards for conformity assessment and responsible AI.”
KEBS has already adopted several international standards and
is developing local ones. For example, Kenyan Standard KS 2007:2025, a
Code of Practice for AI, outlines non‑functional requirements and includes a
full clause on trustworthy AI. It assigns responsibilities across the data
providers, developers, software managers, and end users.
“Implementation is challenging if standards aren’t enforced
or understood, so we also focus on conformity assessment. With donor support
(such as funding from the UK government) we’re developing AI and AI‑data
maturity models. These help organizations, especially start-ups and government
agencies, self‑assess their readiness for responsible AI adoption or
development. We’re also creating playbooks to guide them,” Okoth says.
Nigeria: building AI based on wide variety of languages
With over 500 languages, Nigeria is one of the most
linguistically diverse countries in the world. A LLM currently in development
aims to capture and build on this resource. N-ATLAS, short for Nigeria’s
African Tongue Language AI System, is designed to handle multiple languages
native to Nigeria, including Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, and Nigerian-accented
English.
Launched last September, the centrepiece of Nigeria’s
National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (NAIS), it is a public-private
initiative led by the National Information Technology Development Agency
(NITDA), the National Centre for AI and Robotics (NCAIR) and local AI firm
Awarri.
“N-ATLAS is designed to understand and generate Nigeria’s
diverse voices, ensuring that the country’s linguistic richness is preserved
and reflected in the global Artificial Intelligence (AI) ecosystem,” the
Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy says.
For instance, farmers could use voice-based queries in Hausa
to access weather forecasts or market advice. Igbo-speaking students might
interact with AI tutors in their native tongue, improving learning outcomes in
areas with low literacy rates. Or the LLM could be tuned to customer service
where people’s queries “might differ significantly due to cultural and
linguistic factors.”
The NAIS acknowledges existing structural challenges in the
way of achieving its vision to make Nigeria a global leader in ethical and
inclusive AI innovation. To upgrade its data centre and edge computing
infrastructure, there are plans to offer tax breaks to investors. To build up
its software capacity, organizations like Data Science Nigeria (DSN)
offer upskilling and mentorship programmes. The Nigeria AI Scaling Hub is
a research incubator focused on AI solutions in health, education, and
agriculture, funded by the Gates Foundation. Additionally, the national
curriculum for basic and secondary schools has been revamped to incorporate
learning about AI, robotics, and cyber security. As DSN put it, “Africa cannot
negotiate its place in an AI-driven world without the technical workforce
required to hold that position.”
South Africa is leading the way
By most measures, South Africa is the continent’s leading
country when it comes to digital and AI development. One report ranks
South Africa as the only African country exceeding the global average of
working age adults using AI tools. Another identifies more than 725
AI start-ups in the country at the end of last year, significantly more than
the next best on the continent (Nigeria with 456).
Its National AI Policy Framework, released in 2024,
placed “a strong emphasis on a human-centred approach in AI systems”,
stipulating that applications should augment rather than replace human
decision-making. And yet plans to cement this as national policy had to be put
on hold earlier this year after it was revealed that some of the rules in the
draft were AI-generated. At least six of the document’s 67 academic
citations were found not to exist, suggesting that the draft did not in fact
have sufficient human oversight.
“We need to make sure we have all the right voices at the
table: people deeply immersed in AI, but also people in policy, law, and other
areas,” explains Professor Benjamin Rosman, Director, Machine Intelligence
& Neural Discovery, [JF1] at Wits University told CNBC
Africa.
He is tasked with leading an advisory panel to the
government to develop a new national AI policy. In his interview to CNBC
Africa, he stressed that people working in the field were already seeking to
bring in different perspectives to their work. Designing something
“future-proof” should stand them in good stead, he explained.
Much of the investment in South Africa’s data centre and
cloud infrastructure has come from overseas. Notably from Microsoft, which
recently pledged a USD 329 million expansion in cloud
infrastructure and AI training for Africa’s youngsters (a cumulative
USD 1,4bn investment in recent years). Google and Amazon also
all operate major platforms in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
These moves by overseas tech companies are viewed with a
degree of suspicion by several south African pundits involved in the field.
Rosman, for instance, queried whether South Africa should be happy relying on
US technology and that subscription fees for it are leaving the country. “The
country needs to build its own critical mass, widen participation, and ensure
it is aligned with global best practices around AI, and plot a way forward,” he
advised.
Egypt is an early adopter
The aim of Egypt’s National AI Strategy (2025-2030)
is to have AI contribute as much as 7,7% of total GDP by the end of the decade.
Achieving this would require training 30 000 specialists, supporting 250
startups, and expanding use of AI tools to over 35% of the total population (40
million people).
Egypt was an early mover on the continent, having issued an
early AI framework for growth in 2021. The second edition is “much more
ambitious” with a significant shift from solely using foreign technology to
creating a sovereign AI ecosystem.
Core to that goal is development of Egypt’s first nationally
built and owned LLM, called Karnak, which was announced at the AI
Everything MEA summit in Cairo last February. Karnak is intended
to “preserve linguistic and contextual relevance, especially for Arabic,” and
to underline Egypt’s push to become “a regional AI hub linking Africa, the
Levant, and the Gulf states.”
Applications powered by Karnak include a personalized
AI tutor supporting Egyptian history education in high schools, a
specialized translation tool and a suite of natural language processing engines
for colloquial Arabic.
Both editions of the AI strategy put ethical and responsible
use of the technology at its core. As established in the Egyptian
Charter for Responsible AI, the state is adapting international standards
like UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of AI and ISO/IEC 42001, the
International Standard for AI management systems, to local contexts,
emphasizing human-centeredness, transparency, fairness, accountability, and
privacy.
The work of African standards organizations
Several initiatives have emerged recently to develop cross‑border
AI standards for Africa.
EAC (East African
Community) recently called for
the responsible development of AI and stronger regional collaboration to drive
inclusive growth and innovation. AFSEC (African
Electrotechnical Standardization Commission) is creating a new technical
committee on AI, including AI-enabled products and services, with specific
consideration of African regional requirements, conditions, and priorities. It
will be launched next month at its 10th General Assembly.
ARSO (African
Regional Organization for Standardization): established a technical committee
on information technology with a proposal for a subcommittee to deal with
emerging technologies such as AI and IOT in May of this year.
“The goal is to create Africa‑centric AI standards,”
explains Okoth. “It doesn’t make sense for each country to reinvent the wheel
when resources are limited. Many African countries share similar cultural and
economic contexts, so pooling resources to develop continental standards is
more efficient and impactful.”
TNT Sports promises an approach shaped by its Olympic experience as it prepares to produce 600 hours of coverage of the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, July 23 to August 2.
The US-based broadcaster has landed the keys to the quadrennial multi-sport event from the BBC which declined (on grounds of cost) to cover the 23rd edition of the Games after 72 years in the role.
A total of 74 nations and territories will participate in the Games across ten sports, several with their para equivalent, competing for 165 medals. They include Australia and Canada as well as Uganda, Trinidad & Tobago and Norfolk Island, in the Pacific which has a population of just 2000.
A centrepiece of TNT Sports’ coverage is a linear channel it calls ‘360’ available on TV and HBO Max for viewers in the UK and Ireland.
“360 is a product born from TNT’s learnings as an Olympic broadcaster, particularly from Paris 2024, and from the evolution of HBO Max as a sports‑plus‑entertainment platform,” explains Scott Young, EVP, Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe.
“It’s the opportunity for audiences to take a lean‑back experience into watching something as complicated as a multi‑sport event like the Commonwealth Games,” he says. “We will deliver the most interesting, informative and engaging moments of the Games at that moment.”
The show will blend field‑of‑play action with athlete interviews, pre‑competition preparation, behind‑the‑scenes access and social‑first content gathered by TNT’s digital teams. Young calls it “an immersive 360 approach to how we tell the story of Glasgow 2026.”
The Commonwealth Games is an evolution of an event first held nearly a century just as the British Empire was on the verge of crumbling. It was intended to bring together athletes from across the Commonwealth of Nations, a political association comprising the majority of former territories of the British Empire.
That intent still exists, albeit that the union of countries which maintain the British King as their head of state is increasingly anachronistic.
This edition of the Games is also smaller, with just 10 sports compared to 20 when the event was held in Birmingham, UK four years ago. That’s reflective of the event’s troubled recent history. Australia’s was awarded the host for this year but decided to bow out in 2024 citing escalating costs. Glasgow stepped in as the fallback solution because it could reuse existing stadia from 2014 when it previously hosted the Games and provided it could all be managed within a £125m-150m ($199m) budget.
The sports include athletics artistic gymnastics, track cycling and weightlifting as well as Para-powerlifting, Para-bowls and 3x3 wheelchair basketball.
With the BBC having covered the Games for more than seven decades, Young is clear that TNT is not attempting to replicate that legacy style.
“We definitely haven’t modelled our coverage based on the history of the coverage,” he says. “We put forward what we thought was the right fitting coverage for Glasgow 2026, and we’re delighted Commonwealth Sport saw our approach as the way to take it forward.”
Sunset + Vine host produced the previous two Games but this time around the baton has passed to Geneva-based Actua Films which has a contract with the EBU to produce live events such as the 2024 European Athletics Championships.
TNT will take the host feed and augment it with interviews, athlete access and storytelling around the sports.
Its production model is heavily remote, drawing on infrastructure in London and Paris.
Young says TNT has nearly 230 people on site in Glasgow, with almost double that working remotely.
Signal distribution and contribution between Glasgow and TNT’s main production centre in Chiswick are handled using in‑house capabilities. Control rooms in Paris are also in use, with Timeline supporting RF delivery and multilink assisting with camera and audio components.
“We haven’t taken a view that we need a large technical supplier on site because it is a remote production,” Young explains. “It’s really cameras, microphones, return feeds, IFB, interconnectivity and comms across all the venues.”
The main studio is located at the Hydro, giving presenters proximity to multiple venues and enabling on‑air teams to interact with daily shows.
Young says the Games are “a pretty data‑rich environment,” but TNT’s Olympic experience has taught them that athlete storytelling often outweighs graphic complexity.
Host broadcast graphics will support the main sports, while TNT will use augmented reality to introduce athletes and explain sports that viewers may not traditionally follow.
Multiview and Social‑Native Production
TNT is positioning HBO Max as the central hub for immersive viewing. Multiview — already used across other sports — is being “heroed” for the Commonwealth Games.
This platform-curated feature allows viewers to watch up to four events simultaneously on one screen, with the option to switch between screens.
“You can dive into every sport and every moment on HBO Max,” Young says. “Multiview gives you the top four options of that moment. Click any box and it comes up full screen, with audio following vision.”
He encourages viewers to try it, especially those exploring unfamiliar sports.
“We’ve been an Olympic broadcaster for many editions now,” he says. “We’ve developed how our streaming platform has come along, and we’ve put the power of consuming these Games in the hands of the customer.”
He believes TNT’s combination of technical capability and editorial ambition is now a “superpower” for large‑scale events.
Young emphasises that TNT treats social content as a distinct editorial discipline rather than a derivative of linear output.
“Some broadcasters think the linear feed is the content for social media. We have a very different view,” he says.
TNT’s in‑house creators, both in London and on site, produce native vertical content, behind‑the‑scenes access and athlete‑driven storytelling. All tools are cloud‑based, allowing remote publishing.
TNT’s deal covers only the 2026 Games, but Young says future ambitions will depend on audience response. The next Games will be held in Ahmedabad, India, in 2030.
“Success is a highly engaged audience enjoying Glasgow 2026 as an event,” he says. “We want people to realise there is a new way to experience something like the Commonwealth Games.”
If viewers embrace the multi‑sport immersion, TNT will consider pursuing future editions.
In Sri Lanka, a frog shares homemaking duties with a venomous tarantula. South African birds kill their nestlings to save the colony. A wasp builds a cradle for offspring she will never meet in the English countryside. While killer whales teach their young to hunt, in Kenya, an elephant matriarch and her family must share the remaining water with humans until finally the rains come.
Parenthood, produced by multiple BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning Silverback Films for BBC and PBS, tells the previously untold stories behind the struggles and triumphs that animal parents must endure in order to sustain life on Earth.
Filmed over three years across 23 countries, this 5x60’ series, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, showcases astonishing animal behaviours in stunning 6K Ultra High Definition using RED.
“Working with the world’s best wildlife cinematographers and nature experts, we uncovered a huge number of fascinating and untold behaviors through incredible field craft and dedication,” explains series producer Jeff Wilson. “In an uncertain world, there are lessons to be learned from our animal characters that will resonate with all of us.”
Gorillas in the jungle
The first sequence in the whole series is of a female gorilla cradling her newborn baby.
“Normally the brief is to capture the cute little baby exploring their world,” explains cinematographer Max Kölbl. “But in this case, it was about how the parents perceive parenthood, and what decisions they need to take in order to give their kids the best environment to grow up in.”
This editorial decision dictated how Kölbl would gather footage for the sequence over six weeks in the Gabon rainforest.
“The goal was to pursue a classical long-lens approach designed to immerse viewers in the emotional perspective of gorilla parenthood. That meant I had a long lens on a tripod almost all the time.”
Kölbl has considerable experience filming highly mobile primates like chimpanzees and bonobos for National Geographic, BBC and Apple TV. Tracking them in the field can require walking up to 30 km a day - with gear - but even he was surprised by the difficulty in keeping pace with this gorilla family.
“Group behaviour changes depending on its social makeup. In our case, a new female and her kids tried to enter the group so there was a lot of chaos; the gorillas were really restless and they were very protective of a vulnerable youngster.
“Because we were constantly on the move I felt rushed the entire time. Any moment where we had 30 minutes or an hour to film was pure bliss.”
Low light, rough terrain
Rainforest cinematography presents low light, extreme contrast and layers of green-on-green texture that can flatten both subject and depth. Kölbl relied on RED GEMINI largely because of its dual native ISO and relatively low power demands compared with larger cinema systems.
“RED offers a perfect ratio of image quality, ISO sensitivity, energy consumption, and lightweight design. GEMINI is really light-sensitive so if you are in these dark conditions, you can still get a crisp, clear image.”
Weight and energy consumption were critical considerations since every component from water and food to batteries and tripod had to be carried manually through swampy terrain.
Kölbl carried a second GEMINI body as insurance, selected a CN50–1000mm supplemented by a CN10 for wider coverage.
Equally, if not more important for Kölbl, is working with local Baka guides and trackers. They are essential not only for locating the gorillas, but for understanding their movement and anticipating behaviour.
“Visibility in the jungle is so restricted. Ten centimetres either side and you’ll have a big leaf or tree in front of you. By the time you’ve moved to another position, often the moment has gone.
“That’s why my main goal is to have a good connection with someone in the field who knows the place and the animals by heart. We really fuse into one so that we get the best behavior and the best perspective as a team.”
When he looks back at the sequence, he’s amazed it seems so calm and tranquil. “This was the shoot where I had the biggest contrast between how I felt while filming and the imagery I actually shot.”
Earth’s greatest spectacle
In the Brazilian Amazon, the crew visited a remote stretch of riverbank that has the largest concentration of freshwater turtles in the world.
“Every year the females come out to nest on the beach, and two months later thousands of hatchlings emerge,” says wildlife filmmaker Cristian Dimitrius. “It’s an incredible natural spectacle.”
Dimitrius has filmed the event five times for different productions—A Perfect Planet (Silverback), Supernatural: The Unseen Powers of Animals (Plimsoll),The Americas, and Parenthood (both produced by BBC Studios Natural History Unit) and another Netflix project still to come. Each return trip has forced him to rethink how to tell a story he knows intimately. “The good thing about going back is you can always find a new angle,” he says. “For Parenthood, the unique part was capturing the hatchlings actually breaking out of the eggs.”
A fragile landscape
The beach where the turtles nest is not a national park or state reserve. Its protection comes from a local community association whose members patrol the area, deter poachers, and intervene when climate change threatens the hatchlings.
“The hatching depends on the rains,” Dimitrius explains. “If the rain comes too late, the babies get cooked underground. If it comes too early, the nests flood and they drown.” The team often digs up nests to save the eggs or releases hatchlings manually. “They’ve saved thousands,” he says. “It’s a constant effort.”
Dimitrius uses his own three‑camera RED package in the field: a V‑RAPTOR, GEMINI, and EPIC‑W. “I always bring three cameras,” he explains. “One stays on a long lens, usually a Canon 200–400mm or 600mm equivalent, to cover the classic scenes of the nesting.”
GEMINI is paired with specialty lenses like the Laowa probe for extreme close‑ups, and wide‑angles for wide and immersive shots close to the turtles. For wide work he uses Canon primes from 10mm to 15mm. For very small spaces he sometimes uses KOMODO-X and it is also the camera that goes underwater.
The EPIC‑W served as a flexible B‑cam for timelapse, gimbal work, and backup body ensuring the team never risked downtime in a location where repairs are impossible.
“RED is always the preferred choice,” he says. “It’s not mandatory, but it’s the most accepted camera in the market for natural history. It’s so versatile. We can do slow motion, timelapse, high resolution. Everything we need.”
In particular, the underwater material stands out for him. He relied on a Nauticam housing, swapping between large domes for split shots and smaller domes for macro and micro detail.
“It was the first time we really got good underwater shots of the females for the sequence, which took place in another location a few weeks before. We had the right light, and the right behavior. It finally came together.”
Life in the field
The shoot is as remote as natural history filmmaking gets. “There’s just a basic camp we helped build over the years,” Dimitrius says. “We bring camping gear, food, fuel, tools, spare parts, drones, tripods, sliders, gimbals. You must be completely self sufficient. If something breaks, there’s nowhere to replace it.”
There’s a daily early morning shoot before the sun gets too hot and another shoot on the riverbank in late afternoon. In between, the team will shoot sets arranged in their camp and data manage footage as well as cooling overheated SSDs with fans.
“I rarely need to review footage,” Dimitrius says. “I know when I’ve got the shot. But we check key material and keep a shot list pinned to the wall. It’s a 24‑hour mental process. Even when you sleep, you’re dreaming about the footage.”
His strategy for every shoot is to try to capture all the essential “classic” wildlife shots in week one. “If the weather cooperates, then we spend the second week pushing for creativity and making the sequence more cinematic.”
Dimitrius’s wife Flavia Rocha served as local producer, managing logistics through their production company, Cristian Dimitrius Productions. For the nesting and underwater scenes, Rafael Mitsuo assisted. For the hatchling scenes, macro specialist Owen Carter added a tactile dimension to the sequence, camera operator Laura Pennafort did most of the shots including drone and long lens and Aaron Sadhu served as field director.
The shot that made the sequence
What makes the shoot special, he says, is the sheer diversity of wildlife filming technique. “It’s macro, long lens, wide angle, gimbal, drone, underwater, lab work. The full arsenal. That’s what makes it unique.”
The moment that defines the sequence, however, may be the simplest: a hatchling breaking free of its egg. It was filmed in a controlled lab environment by Richard Kirby and Augusto Gomes at the research center INPA in Manaus.
“When I saw that shot, I knew that was the one,” he says. “It tells the whole story. Tiny legs pushing through the shell, the first breath of a life that will immediately fight for survival. It is magical and when I saw it on my phone, I knew that was the start of the sequence. As I said, it’s all about teamwork. Richard and Augusto did a great job, as the rest of the team. We can see every contribution of everyone on screen. Laura’s passion and dedication is imparted in every image she shot, Owen’s macro magic makes the difference, Aaron’s connections and direction made the sequence extraordinary, Flavia’s fixing made us safe and comfortable and our female and underwater shots connect the species to the environment. Teamwork is always the key.“
DROUGHT, GUNS AND FLOODS
The team were hoping to film elephants in the height of the wet season but when they arrived in Kenya’s Samburu National Reserve in 2022 the rains had not yet come. East Africa was in the grip of a historic drought and the consequences for both wildlife and people became clear.
“We’d planned to film a piece about how experienced female elephants guide tiny calves across dangerous rivers,” explains cinematographer Sophie Darlington, ASC, who has worked on landmark series for Netflix, National Geographic and the BBC, including Dynasties I and II, Our Planet I and II, The Hunt, Planet Earth II and Life Story.
“The rains had failed and the land was parched. In addition to that, the first herd we followed was blocked by thousands of cattle and armed herders.”
She says, “No amount of maternal wisdom can help when you’re faced with livestock and people carrying machine guns. The story changed immediately.”
“It was an extraordinarily good shoot, but not the one we originally set out to capture.”
The shoot was delayed slightly in the hope for rain which did finally arrive towards the end of their three-week schedule.
“The reason elephants cross rivers is surprisingly simple: fresh pasture and family,” Darlington explains. “They’re hugely social. If it’s been raining on one side, they’ll travel. They can hear rain from far away—not just through their ears, but through their feet.”
Most elephants in Kenya aren’t hunted, though there’s human–wildlife conflict, so the team take great care around old bulls or crop‑raiders. “But because we’re in cars and using long lenses. Our standard is the CN20 50–1500mm. We give them space and have very little impact,” she says.
Building the sequence
For this day shoot, Darlington relied on HELIUM, chosen for its 16.5 stops of latitude. “That’s brilliant when filming elephants under harsh equatorial sun, where white skies and deep skin folds can easily clip or crush detail,” she says.
“We needed the ability to punch in at 120fps when elephants were being swept by currents. To feel the water dragging a calf, then quickly return to base rate (of 29.97fps, standard for BBC delivery). But with elephants, you have to be judicious with slow motion. They’re so big that over‑cranking can make them look ponderous unless there’s a strong story reason.”
The team carried two RED bodies—one in Darlington’s vehicle, one with drone operator Tobias Samuels.
“We also had a Canon CN7 as well as the CN20, so Tobias could set up wide shots while I covered long lens work at dawn or dusk.”
Having learned on film, Darlington is selective with her recording. “I’m hardwired to think carefully about when I press record, almost to my detriment,” she says. “Pre‑record [a function which caches 4-30 seconds] is a gift.”
She shoots with the editor in mind: close‑ups, linking shots, mother‑calf interactions and herd dynamics but she avoids overshooting. “Elephants were only at the river for limited periods, usually in terrible light. We didn’t have endless opportunities.”
Rushes were backed up to dual drives and she reviewed footage daily on a SmallHD monitor. When filming, she prefers the viewfinder. “I’m strongly left‑eyed and a bit of a framing fascist. A monitor changes how I frame.”
She operates zoom control with her right hand while pulling focus manually. “Despite autofocus advances, we still focus by hand. That will change soon, but for now, being in tune with the rig matters. I love using focus emotionally—throwing focus between characters in the frame at the right moment.”
Fieldcraft
Working with Samuels required constant communication between vehicles, facilitated by producer Nancy Lane. “There were several river crossings, so Tobias would send the drone up to see where the elephants were heading.”
They also had to be cautious: elephants don’t love drones, which can remind them of bees, and the presence of armed herders added another layer of risk. “We were extremely careful not to be intrusive. Our job is to record faithfully, but as beautifully and creatively as possible.”
Accessory‑wise Darlington packs lens tissues, a scrim or camouflage netting and KipperTie NDs as well as her beloved Swarovski 8x32 EL binoculars, bought with her first paycheck. “In our line of work, they’re crucial.”
Matriarchal intelligence
One extraordinary moment stayed with her: a mother edging her calf into the river, the current threatening to sweep the youngster away.
“Part of you wants to film the drama of a calf being swept away and rescued,” she admits. “But your heart is in your mouth. When she chose not to cross, it summed up her matriarchal intelligence perfectly.”
The team later travelled to Reteti, a community‑run elephant sanctuary where keepers effectively become surrogate mothers for calves orphaned by poaching or drought. “In the end, we got a much stronger story,” Darlington says.
Two shots from the sequence stand out for her: a mother passing through frame as she tilts down to reveal the calf, and the matriarch powering through the shot. “I remember thinking, That’s the frame. That’s going to tell the story.”
Last year, Darlington became the first dedicated natural history cinematographer invited to the ASC. “Being a member of the Society has given me powers I didn’t have before, and I’m determined to use them for good. I want to open doors for mentoring opportunities and help increase diversity. Given the state of the planet right now, that could not be more important.”
ESPN is the biggest international broadcaster for Wimbledon for which it is paying around $95m annually for exclusive rights in the U.S until 2035 (from 2024). It’s a vital partner to the All England Lawn Tennis Club
(AELTC) which own the Championship and which manages host broadcast internally
under Wimbledon Broadcast Services (WBS).
“Wimbledon is one of the tentpole events on ESPN each year and is a cornerstone of our tennis portfolio,” John Suchenski, ESPN Senior Director, Programming & Acquisitions tells IBC365. “It represents excellence, tradition, and elite competition, values that align perfectly with our brand and the first-class coverage we strive to provide to fans in the U.S.”
To augment WBS’ coverage ESPN has a huge outside broadcast operation in SW19.
Jarrett Baker, ESPN’s Sr Manager, Remote Operations explains: “We do most of the production work live in Wimbledon with hundreds of pieces of equipment that were installed over the week before the main draw begins. We have about 300 people on site working in two full control rooms, a REMI PCR for international use, a large graphics room with five viz engines, replay space for 25 operators, and nine offices that overlook Court 18.”
ESPN is deploying more than 30 unilateral cameras. This includes four coverage cameras on both Centre Court and No. 1 Court along with two cabled handhelds and two RF handhelds roaming the grounds.
Baker says, “It’s a privilege to show off the immaculate grounds and world-class competition with so many bespoke positions.”
Its production also uses about 100 ISO feeds from WBS and there are nearly 500 inputs to the onsite router.
Highlights and magazine style programming are produced both on-site and in the U.S. Linda Schulz, Vice President, Production ESPN, explains, “We have production teams work in shifts to help with time change and the lengthy broadcast windows. The U.S. team focuses on highlights that have been requested by announcers and producers at the end of days’ play to be turned around for coverage in the AM in the UK. The U.S. team also handles our creative and long form creative content. Our team in the UK handles our quick turn analysis packages.”
This year ESPN added an announce (commentator) position at No. 3 Court and an upgraded commentator booth at Court 2.
“At this point we have Commentator booths in five different locations, allowing for a more in-depth presentation as we go from match to match,” Schulz says. “A tremendously exciting new coverage opportunity is additional ‘whisper’ positions, or more commonly known as courtside analysis positions. We now will frequently have reporters or analysts in the stands at Courts 1, 2, 3 and even Centre Court. This access is completely new this year.”
It also made scenic adjustments in Studio 3 to improve the look of virtual graphics. Additionally, ESPN has expanded its virtual graphics package. Last year it was primarily kept to in studio use and one live, static camera, with a handful of templates for content.
“This year we will have much more expansive content and storytelling presentations, as well as alternate camera options,” Schulz says.
Last year’s ratings for the women’s and men’s finals were ESPN’s best in six years, helped by the Jannik Sinner v Carlos Alcaraz battle to which 4 million people tuned in. The whole two weeks of Championship 2025 was ranked the fourth-best Wimbledon broadcast in ESPN’s history averaging 721,000 total viewers—6% higher than 2024—across more than 250 hours of coverage watched on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2.
The out-of-retirement story of 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams and her sister Venus are a key editorial focus for the US broadcaster. ESPN plans to document both player journey’s from start to finish and wrap that coverage with virtual graphics, features and reports throughout all ESPN platforms.
“Beyond that, we love the opportunity of stories on both sides,” Schultz says. “Each of the last nine Wimbledon’s have featured a different ladies’ champion, the longest streak in tournament history. And on the Gentlemen’s side, Novak Djokovic is seeking his 25th all-time major singles title, which would break the tie with Margaret Court for most Gentlemen’s or Ladies’. But he has to get through the defending Champions Jannik Sinner and without Carlos Alcaraz, the door is cracked open for a spoiler to both Djokovic and Sinner.”
SIGNALS: A New Way to Experience Wimbledon
For decades, watching Wimbledon has meant following the TV broadcast but this format increasingly feels out of place in a world where fans demand interaction and new technology enables them to experience it.
SIGNALS is the BBC’s attempt to do something about that. It’s a new interactive layer built by BBC R&D and available during Centre Court matches at this Championships.
“Wimbledon has always been a shared national moment, watched and debated in real time but audience expectations have changed,” explains Laura Harrison, Principal product manager at BBC R&D. “People want to interact and feel part of what’s happening on court,”
Running as an internet‑delivered layer alongside the live broadcast, rather than as a second screen, SIGNALS blends real‑time participation with live match data. Among other things it enables viewers to answer quizzes at key moments then instantly seeing how others across the UK respond.
“You’re not just watching a match unfold, you’re seeing the collective read of it evolve in real time,” she says.
The official live ball‑tracking data is also being used to surface match insights displayed through on‑screen overlays. For example, a continuously updating ‘dominance graph’ shows who is in control and how momentum shifts. A ‘winners view’ highlights which shots are working and ‘Serve Performance’ cards and animated serve‑speed overlays bring clarity to these shots.
“Tennis produces a huge amount of data, but much of it has traditionally been out of reach during live play,” she adds. For fans, SIGNALS turns that data into “clear stories that make matches easier to follow and more engaging.”
This also creates a real-time feedback loop, which BBC R&D say helps broadcasters understand audience behaviour in real time and therefore to shape editorial decisions as matches unfold.
BBC R&D thinking also extends into current affairs, reality and entertainment shows. Ideas include scoring a routine on Strictly at the exact moment the judges lift their paddles; choosing which route contestants should take in Race Across the World or responding live to discussion points on Question Time creating a live snapshot of the national mood.
Wimbledon is the first public outing for the prototype. BBC R&D suggest it’s a glimpse of how television might reclaim attention “not by competing with everything else in the room, but by bringing the interactions back to the TV screen itself.”
