Fascinating characters: Behind the Grand Slam Track partnership of Momentum Broadcast and Carr Hughes Productions

UK-based Momentum Broadcast has partnered with US-based Carr Hughes Productions to create a new entity, M-CHP, to produce Michael Johnson’s new athletics baby, Grand Slam Track, the first of which was held in Jamaica in April.

Grand Slam Track is a new professional track competition, featuring a roster of 48 racers signed to compete in the four annual Slams. M-CHP is leading the broadcast efforts for all four Slams.

The teams of the joint venture are led from Momentum by Mark Fulton, and from Carr Hughes Productions, Jim Carr, who are both executive producers of M-CHP.

Fascinating characters

On how the two teams got together in the first place, we have to step back slightly. The team at Momentum has all worked together at ITN and on World Championships at World Athletics Productions (WAP). When ITN lost the contract for World Athletics, the WAP crew knew they were being made redundant. However, says Fulton, “we decided that we still had a lot to give in terms of as a team”.

Read more: High benchmark: Inside the inaugural Grand Slam Track production from Jamaica

Under the guise of Momentum, Fulton began conversations with Grand Slam Track around 12 months ago, after its team approached him about the possibility. He went to LA a couple of times for meetings with Rick Qualliotine, chief content officer at Grand Slam Track.

Fulton says: “Rick’s a fascinating character, ex-NFL. He’s quite a big player in the States. I went to see them in Paris at the Olympics, and Jim Carr was there as well. Jim and I have known each other for probably about six years now through working on the World Championships in Oregon, and it went from there.

“[Grand Slam Track] said that they’d been speaking to Jim as well as us, but they actually liked the experience that we had in terms of world feeds, and the experience that Carr Hughes had in terms of domestic feeds. I think Grand Slam Track saw two groups of people that had a lot of experience in their own areas. They felt as though that bringing our teams that had been producing World Athletics on a very, very high level in terms of World Championships into Grand Slam Track and almost saying, “right, this is a clean sheet of paper”, was a combination would work really well.

“It’s actually been a really, really good combination,” continues Fulton. “We did the first event in Kingston, and I think we all agree it’s a pretty powerful combination of two companies together.”

On the partnership, Fulton continues on Carr Hughs Productions: “They’ve been a phenomenal partner and we could never have done it without them, because I think that from a US perspective, it’s a very different world working in America to anywhere else that we’ve worked, apart from China. Getting the nuances and getting into their psyche of things. It’s a collaborative thing.”

Different strengths

On the practicalities of how the two companies teamed up for Grand Slam Track, Fulton says: “I think it became very apparent pretty quickly where various different strengths lay. Certainly Jim and I had lots of conversations about the areas; from a technical perspective that came with Kevin and probably more from Jim than from me, from a production perspective that probably came more from me and Anneka [Radley-Hodges, Momentum Broadcast senior producer] on our side, and Rich O’Connor, Carr’s executive producer and the producer of the domestic feed for the Slam in the States.”

Read more: Big package: Groundbreaking AR for live athletics comes to Grand Slam Track

Adds Kevin Orwin, technical director at Momentum Broadcast: “Certainly with Carr Hughes being a US-based company and where we’re currently working in terms of the location, they’re a huge help already being on that side of the pond. They have the experience of working in the States, they know how to deal with crew, so that was a big part.”

Grand Slam Track Miami takes place from 2 to 4 May 2025. This is followed by Philadelphia from 30 May to 1 June, and Los Angeles from 27 to 29 June