Live From Special Olympics World Games 2023: Building a Legacy Through Broadcast

The Special Olympics World Games has been taking place in Berlin this week, with thousands of athletes competing in 26 different sports at eight venues around the city, including athletics, basketball, hockey, judo, sailing, swimming and volleyball.

SVG Europe was in Berlin this week to watch some of the Games and to speak with Roman Steuer, consultant for the Local Organising Committee (LOC) and the person tasked with leading the production and broadcast operation at one of the largest multisport events in the world.

Roman Steuer: ex-Sky Deutschland EVP sports is the LOC broadcast consultant
Steuer spoke about building on the breadth and depth of quality of the production of the 2019 Abu Dhabi Games, the reasons why the LOC decided to take on host broadcaster responsibilities, and why it was important for Germany’s broadcasters to join forces.

SVG Europe We’re at the mid-point of the games. Can you give us an overview of how things have gone so far and what kind of reaction there has been to the Games?

Roman Steuer I’m really proud of what we have achieved, especially for Germany because we have so many requests from the media coming in; at the moment, more than 2,000 journalists have asked for credentials which is big, and they are coming from all over the world.

In Germany, we wanted people to be aware of the Games and to know what the Special Olympics is, because in Germany most of the people last year would probably have described it as being like the Paralympics. Now, we have a chance to build a big stage and make people familiar with the Special Olympics and to show this joy and pure sports that is more evident than in professional sports.

It’s the biggest sporting event in Germany for 50 years. The last event of this size was the Olympic Games in Munich in ’72, so it’s a big show for Berlin and for Germany.

SVG Europe The summer edition of the Special Olympics World Games takes place every four years. What did you have to adopt from Abu Dhabi 2019? And what did you want to change?

Roman Steuer We had a close look at Abu Dhabi because we were told it was a real step up for the Special Olympics World Games. We decided it was clear that the LOC should be the host broadcaster, which meant we would be able to decide what to produce in quantity and quality. And we had a look at Abu Dhabi, and said ok we have to do even more than that in terms of the amount of sports and hours we produce.

Powerlifting at the Special Olympics World Games: powerlifting – along with track & field and swimming – are the three priority sports for global rights holder ESPN.
There are 26 sports and we are covering half of them with live coverage, especially the finals which means overall we are producing around 400 hours of live content. In addition, there is post-produced content which we can offer to media partners all over the world.

We wanted to make it as easy as possible for broadcasters, and that is why we decided to produce as much as possible and in the best possible quality so that we have a big basket full of different formats, live content, summaries, highlights, and then they can pick from this selection for their individual purposes. And of course they can create their own content, which a few are doing.

In Germany, we have the national media alliance of the 11 biggest broadcasters and media firms in Germany who are showing Special Olympics World Games content. Not all want to do the same; Sky is showing a few hours per day live but others like DAZN are just taking the content we produce. They’ve not sent a team here, but they are taking our content. That’s why the content is not so heavily branded, and that was a request from the broadcasters.

SVG Europe The LOC is host broadcaster for the Games, working closely with Sky Germany in a consulting role and NEP for production services. Why did you decide to work that way?

Roman Steuer The main reason was because we wanted to control the quantity and the quality for the national media partners and for the international partners, and because we really wanted to raise the production standard. With every Special Olympics World Games it goes a little bit higher, but we wanted to raise it even more.

Abu Dhabi had a large opening ceremony but live coverage – even though it was an improvement on the Games before – it was a little limited. That’s why we decided, we have to do it big. Also, we wanted to lift the quality up to the same level as other international sports; it’s a psychological thing – when people view it, it’s important that they watch it and consider it to be on the same level as other sports. What we didn’t want, was an ENG crew just filming for half an hour and then doing a one-and-a-half minute report.

SVG Europe You have split the events into tiers – why, and how, did you go about this?

Roman Steuer We looked at where most of the 6,500 athletes are competing, and what the most popular sports are. We also have very close alignment with our global partner, ESPN and so it was important to consider what they are interested in because we are taking care of the distribution in Germany and German-speaking countries, while ESPN is taking care of the world distribution. Then, we decided to select 13 Sports for gold and silver production – which means live, including graphics on site.

Special Olympics World Games: a Bocce match taking place at Messe, Berlin
And the other 13 we cannot cover live because this would mean then a huge production. So that’s why we decided we will do from the other 13 finals with ENG crews or LiveU-equipped teams, so we get enough material, so and you will always see from every sport a minimum of two reports or two summaries, which will cover not all finals, but a lot of them.

SVG Europe In Germany there is a media alliance of Amazon, ARD, Bild, DAZN, Meta, ProSiebenSat1, RTL, Sky, Sport1, Telekom, ZDF and Sportdeutschland.tv all showing a mix of live, highlights and summaries. How did you bring that group together?

Roman Steuer The first thing we had to do was convince them that with these Games, it is a different situation to some of the events they may have covered in the past. So we’re not talking about, let’s say, exclusive sports rights like Champions League where you are paying a lot of money and then trying to get the best out of your exclusivity.

We knew it would be a great step if the German media cooperated in terms of distribution and the sharing of content. We invented what we call one folder on our exchange platform, which is Scoopa. And that platform is full of B-roll, rough cuts, and ready to broadcast reports. Because our main goal is that with the content, which is delivered through every channel possible, viewers in Germany and around the world know what the Special Olympics is, and how emotional it is. And I think they have done it.