SCOTT YOUNG, SVP CONTENT AND PRODUCTION DISCUSSES DISCOVERY'S PLANS FOR BEIJING 2022

How are Discovery Eurosport’s plans shaping up for Beijing 2022?
The Cube is a phenomenal piece of kit. It’s an amazing piece of technology, it’s an amazing innovation but above all, it’s the world best storytelling tool. Here is where we really bring the Olympics to life. You saw it to a certain level in Tokyo, it’s not even 2.0 now, I’ve lost count, but we’ve amplified what the Cube can do beyond expectation. The ability to have 26 different hosting locations, we’ve 3D actors in the backgrounds in some of those spaces and frankly you and I should’ve brought marshmallows for the fire behind us.

So what’s different to this incredible studio compared to Tokyo?
This is a real world tool and environment where you need to be malleable. The award-winning technology is well recognised for what the Cube can do, now the next piece as you’ve seen through delivering Winter Pass as our Road To content for Beijing, this is about explaining to our audience that doesn’t completely understand the complexities of many of the winter sports athletes.

We can look forward to an amazing array of experts on the Discovery Sports side, unlocking the power of the Olympics on Discovery’s platforms. We get world-class pictures from OBS and we know the sport is covered brilliantly. Our role is to unlock the achievement of every athlete, their achievements, their successes, their failures and to understand what they went through to achieve their goals.

 
The pandemic has brought significant challenges in the production and coverage planning for the Games. How have you and the Discovery team overcome this? 
Our journey as a broadcaster at the Olympics is to be with the athletes and to connect the fans at home with that athlete journey. We know fans at home can’t travel to China as they couldn’t at Japan so even more these days, it’s important to bring every part of that story into living rooms and the devices in people’s hands who want to enjoy the Games.

Our teams have had to deliver two Olympics in a short amount of time and that’s a challenge. To do that under the Covid umbrella is a challenge I don’t think anyone anticipated and it’s a phenomenal add-on takes away sometimes the distraction from the content plans.

We’ve got an amazing logistics team that makes sure everyone gets there and we’ve got a phenomenal content team that once they’re there, they can tell those stories. Once the Games begin and that flame is lit and the competition starts, it really comes back into that rhythm that story of the competition. We’ll be looking forward to Paris 2024 where touch wood Covid will be an environment that is no longer dictating our product.

Why should viewers tune in to watch Discovery’s coverage or come to our digital platforms during the Games?
It’s the most immersive experience you’re going to get. You can get every athlete, every medal and every moment on discovery+. And like the Cube, discovery+ is one of the most innovative ways we can tell the Olympic Games. So across our many platforms, across our linear platforms, across our affiliates you can enjoy a traditional broadcast but with discovery+ you get everything you want to curate it.

We also have our pop-up channels that we will put on-air particularly around curling and ice hockey. But when you want to watch it, as you want to watch it, on the platform you want to watch it on, there is no more rewarding experience than watching it on discovery+.

Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 begins on Wednesday 2 February with coverage of every medal from every event LIVE on discovery+ (selected markets) and Eurosport