Paris 2024: OBS CEO Yiannis Exarchos on striving for gender parity in Games coverage

There has been a “seismic change” in the way that women’s sport is covered during Paris 2024, says Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) chief executive Yiannis Exarchos who has outlined how the host broadcaster is working to ensure that gender parity on the field of play is reflected in coverage of the Games.

For the first time at an Olympic Games, Paris 2024 will see an equal number of men and women competing, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) devising a more gender-balanced programme with the competition schedule made up of 152 women’s events, 157 men’s events and 20 mixed-gender events.

“The new generation of sports media broadcasters in France is going to be just slightly predominantly female, and that is a great thing.”

Speaking during Sunday’s Paris 2024 IOC Daily Briefing, Exarchos described sports broadcasting as “one of the weakest” in terms of gender equality. He said: “The achievement that we celebrate on the sporting front – the equal participation of women – is not enough for us. We wanted to make sure that the actual sports content also reflects this equality.”

OBS chief executive Yiannis Exarchos (Pic: IOC)

Paris 2024 organisers have made adjustments to the event schedule, which Exarchos said has traditionally been biased towards highlighting men’s events. For example, for the first time since its inclusion in the Olympic programme in 1984, the women’s marathon in Paris will take place a day after the men’s event and will conclude the athletics programme.

In addition, the order of events for many of the combat and strength sports are now based on weight category, allowing the men’s and women’s events to alternate. Previously, the women’s competitions would be scheduled in the morning and the men’s in the evening, when there are typically more viewers.

Exarchos said there had been commitment and support from rights holding broadcasters to providing more balanced coverage of the Game, with US broadcaster NBC singled out by the OBS chief executive. He said: “We have been talking with our colleagues from NBC, who are obviously a very, very important partner for us. They have a full commitment of showcasing in their primetime coverage in equal measure women’s and men’s competition. When you look at other major sporting events it helps to understand what a seismic change this is.

“In order to achieve this, it has been very important to make sure that our teams also reflect as much as practically possible gender equality. We have to be very transparent, and I don’t have any issue in saying that our sports broadcasting industry is one of the weakest on this front, and we need to do things [to address that].

Exarchos said that when OBS was established back in 2001, the gender split was “not good” at around 80/20. “Now, in terms of our permanent staff of 161 from 30 countries, 47% are women and 53% are men and I believe within the next year this will be 50%. We also have more women in senior positions; almost half of my direct reports very soon will be women.”

Exarchos also spoke about the gender balance in roles at the Paris 2024 games, highlighting that two third of Paris 2024 broadcast venue managers are women, with a similar split among those working in the OBS Broadcast Operation Centre.

Prior to the Games, OBS also led some initiatives focused on more technical positions, including a training programme in November for 70 female camera operators. In addition, the ​OBS Broadcast Training Programme, which is providing 1,200 local students with hands-on experience and insight into how the Olympic Games are broadcast, is comprised of 57% women.

“The new generation of sports media broadcasters in France is going to be just slightly predominantly female, and that is a great thing,” said Exarchos.

Updated Portrayal Guidelines

There has also been a focus on storytelling and narratives for the Paris 2024 Games. Said Exarchos: “A lot of unconscious bias still exists, because it’s not enough just to make sure that the volume of content is there.

“I still see unfortunately in some events that they are filmed in a way that you can identify that there are stereotypes and sexist approaches, even from the way some camera operators are framing differently men and women athletes… women are there because they are elite athletes, and they should be showcased in the same way.”

Exarchos explained that OBS and the IOC had worked “in detail” about what it means to showcase athletes in an equal and fair way, with the findings reflected in the third version of the IOC’s Portrayal Guidelines. First published in 2018, the guidelines have been updated for the 2024 Games to “foster more inclusive and respectful sports coverage”.

“Those are guidelines we’re not forcing [rights-holding broadcasters] to use them. OBS – our producers, directors and commentators – will use them, and we have invited broadcasters to embrace the ideas that are contained there,” said Exarchos.

Read more Paris 2024: BBC Sport on its remote production workflow for the Summer Games