With the 2026 Milano Cortina Paralympic Opening Ceremony just hours away, many broadcasters are already looking ahead to the next Winter Games, which will take place in the French Alps.

Alpes Francaises 2030 – the location of the XXVI Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games – will be held from 1 to 17 February 2030 and the 1 to 10 March 2030, respectively. Rights holding broadcaster France Télévisions is already excited about the prospect of another Games on home soil, just a few years after Paris 2024.

Learn, adapt, adjust

Looking ahead to the 2030 Winter Games in the Alps, France, Pierre Martin, France Télévisions’ Winter Olympics team leader for Milano Cortina and senior production manager, says that in effect Milano Cortina is a practice for France Télévisions, as the overall geography of Alpes Francaises 2030.

Martin comments on how Milano Crotina is already relating to Alpes Francaises 2030: “As I said to my teams, this was a big challenge, but it is not finished. Every day we have to maintain the same quality and do the best until the end.

“But the fact is that in the French Alps, it will be quite the same setup. All that we [have made here] is important, because we learn and adapt and adjust. Maybe we will use the same processes as here; maybe will do another thing.”

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French Alps 2030’s venue master plan focuses on four zones: in Haute Savoie, Savoie, Briançon, and Nice, where the IBC will be based. There are five Olympic Villages proposed so that all athletes can stay in accommodation that is no more than 30 minutes away from their competition venue.

Continues Martin: “But now, our technicians and engineers already have a good realistic idea of what should be done in the French Alps. It’s quite [similar to Milano Cortina] in terms of the widely spread locations of] Nice, Courchevel, Méribel, and all the sites.”

Three venues used for Albertville 1992 form part of the French Alps 2030 master plan: La Plagne’s sliding track, the Courchevel ski jump, and Méribel’s Roc de Fer downhill Alpine skiing course. The other proposed snow venues are located in La Clusaz, Le Grand Bornand, Serre Chevalier and Montgenèvre.

Nice is proposed to hold the ice sports, with the exception of speed skating, which would be hosted outside of France to avoid building a new venue without a strong plan for a post-Games legacy.

Of the proposed venues, 93% are existing or will be temporary, in line with the International Olympic Committee’s focus on sustainability.

Mountains in reach

However, Martin adds that even though Alpes Francaises 2030 is taking place on France Télévisions’ home turf, keep costs low is still going to be an important aspect of the production. Having the IBC and main press centres somewhere that makes the mountains more accessible would be preferred, Martin says, over the situation in Milano Cortina.

He explains: “What is most important now for everybody is the cost and the economic face. [Alpes Francaises 2030] will be in France, yes, but we have to be really, really careful of the economic part. Yiannis [Exarchos, CEO, Olympic Broadcasting Services] also knows that the Winter Games – the snow games and ice games – for the Swiss, Austrian, Italian, and French people, is important; all European people are very focused on snow sports.”

He says that having the IBC so far from the action on the slopes has not been perfect for Milano Cortina, noting, “to be in Milan is not so good for all these winter nations”.

Yet he adds: “In Pyeongchang, we had only one broadcast centre in the mountains, and we connected the sea and the coastal ice sports by fibre. But the main press centre was in the mountains.

“What we have said is that for France, the fact of having only one mountain broadcast centre at the cross of the South of France [between the] valleys and the mountains should be a great, and economically a good solution for everybody,” he concludes. “When our colleagues from other countries in are dispatched to the mountains [as they are here in Milano Cortina], we lose in cohesion.”

The locations and sports for Alpes Francaises 2030:

• Haute Savoie Zone: Cross-country skiing (La Clusaz), Biathlon (Le Grand Bornand), Olympic Village
• Savoie Zone: Alpine skiing (Courchevel, Méribel), Ski jumping (Courchevel), Nordic combined (Courchevel, Méribel), sliding sports (La Plagne), Olympic Villages (Bozel, La Plagne)
• Briançon Zone: Freestyle skiing and snowboarding (Serre Chevalier, Montgenèvre), Olympic Village (Briançon)
• Nice Zone: Ice hockey (two arenas), Figure skating and Short track speed skating, Curling, International Broadcast Centre and Main Press Centre, and Closing Ceremony