IN CONVERSATION
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THE CHANNEL
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Bandsports’
award-winning
bus studio at
London 2012
for our Olympic bus studio and
transmission systems. Every day
we were in a different part of the
city ‐ we wanted the audience to be
in London with us.
Doing something closer to home
increases the pressure to do it right.
The country is huge, we have
distances of more than 4,000km
between venues and host cities. We
definitely want to reach out to the
audience with our coverage. Both
the 2014 FIFA World cup and the
2016 Olympics will be broadcast in
a number of different media,
including two terrestrial TVs ‐
actually for Rio 2016 weʹll have three
terrestrial TVs and four pay‐TV
brands associated with the event.
For London 2012 we did the
whole planning in two years, and it
involved a lot of travelling. Rio is
only a 45 minute flight for us. I
believe we will start the planning
once the 2014 World Cup is over.
Are you open to content sharing
for Rio?
Yes, we most likely look for
partners with the same kind of
rights so that we donʹt have any
issues during the event. We can
exchange footage, help with
production facilities and actual
production. This kind of reference
is important when you come to a
country where you donʹt know
how the system works, you donʹt
know how the people work.
Any trends in how people watch
sport?
I would say sports events are still
mainly watched on a big screen on
TV. But I am sure – and I have been
talking to my team to see how we
can take advantage of it –that 90%
of those watching sport on TV today
have a second device by their side,
to interact with their friends, their
team and so on. This interaction
element is very important in terms
of how you can reach people and
how you can improve their
experience of watching sport.
We are working on how to make
apps as interactive as possible. The
information you provide has to be
relevant ‐ you have to make sure
that the user will come back to your
app and use your app, not just
download it. This is what will bring
value and recognition to the brand
that is attached to that app. Due to
low quality of broadband in Brazil
on 3G and also on local
connections, sport is still mainly
watched on TV. But in three or four
years, we will have some of these
audiences dedicated to different
media. Already now, by
broadcasting some matches
exclusively on our website we reach
different audiences that do not
have access to TV at that moment of
time during the day. At Roland
Garros, we saw some of our
subscribers watching one match on
Bandsports TV and a different
match on the iPad through our
website, at the same time. Or
people were watching the match on
a 3G device in their car. This is the
kind of thing I am talking about,
reaching people wherever they are.
Your priorities and challenges?
It is important for us as broadcasters
to give exposure to smaller events
and lesser known sports because by
doing that we will encourage
people to play these sports and
develop new talents in that sport.
Of course, if you are only interested
in ratings you will always end up
with soccer, volleyball, Formula 1.
But there is also basketball, judo
and lots more ‐ sports broadcasting
has got a bright future. I would say
my priorities are Bandsports
becoming more relevant in the
Brazilian market with strong new
properties, and promoting
interaction with our audience. The
biggest challenge in achieving that
is budget. Our competitors are very
good at what they do, so we have to
be very smart in our next moves so
we can surprise everyone.
Evandro Figueira, thank you.
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Above left
Bandsports print
advert
Top Rodrigo
Cascino and
Chiquinho Leite
Moreira at Roland
Garros 2013
Below Reporter
MarceloRozenberg
on a stand-up in
front of the
Suzanne Lenglen
Court
THE CHANNEL
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ISSUE 2 2013
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19
