Passion for live: BBC Sport head of production Rachel Wright on being creative, collaborative and looking to the future

Winning at the RTS Awards 2023 for the production of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022, Rachel Wright, head of production at BBC Sport for major events, cricket, general sport and digital live

From watching Grandstand at her granny’s house to being inspired to pursue a career in production while watching a panto aged 14 years old, Rachel Wright, head of production at BBC Sport for major events, cricket, general sport and digital live, has come a long way. This International Women’s Day we spoke to Wright about how her career has unfolded, and what she finds so exciting about this creative and collaborative industry.

How did you first find out about TV broadcasting as a career? What was your inspiration or idea, and why sports broadcasting?

I was first drawn to the creative industries when I was 14 years old. I went to watch my local pantomime and spent the entire time watching the follow spot operator. My attention quickly turned to television production and I started a video production course at my local arts centre and I joined the RTS North East branch and started to make industry contacts and arranging to attend film shoots and work experience.

Being so young, I received a lot of support and encouragement from senior people working in the media across Newcastle and Teesside. My goal was always to work at the BBC and I regularly wrote to senior management at the BBC for advice including the director general (DG) and received many encouraging responses. This led to me securing work experience every year in the school holidays at BBC Newcastle and I regularly went on shoots with the local news crews and long stints on the children’s drama Byker Grove. This continued until I went to university.

During this time I filmed, edited and produced my own short documentaries and creative films with family friends. A few shorts were successful in national and local competitions which led to me appearing on screen being interviewed. The tutor from the video course owned a small video company and he mentored me for many years and I helped manage his facilities and this enabled me to develop technical knowledge, access equipment and develop editing skills.

My interest in sport started when I took a new job as part of the move to MediacityUK in Salford.

Rachel Wright, head of production at BBC Sport for major events, cricket, general sport and digital live at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games

What draws you to your career in live sport?

My key motivation is bringing people together for big moments and I am lucky to have the privilege to work on many huge event including the Olympics. With my current role I am able to work to bring these events to life across all platforms.

The production management team’s role in this delivery is critical, the logistics are hugely complex, and the effort and detail that goes into the planning to enable this is impressive.  For the Paris Olympics we had a predominantly female team who worked tirelessly to ensure the event ran smoothly.

What challenges have you faced over the course of your career?

Starting my career was a hard period, as a runner I worked two jobs and whilst at the indie regularly had short contracts sometimes two weeks at a time; rolling from job to job, worrying about paying the rent and surviving in London.

I quickly learnt a freelance career probably wasn’t for me and I was lucky to join the BBC in a period in broadcast where most were on staff contracts. I had my 25 year anniversary last year and whilst this is a long time to be in one organisation, I have benefitted from many opportunities to move around which has enabled my wide and varied CV. I have been in the sport department for the longest period but this is partly due to circumstance, moving out of London and having a family.

Working in sport has changed massively over the last decade. My experiences as a woman in a predominantly male environment has at times been challenging to navigate but has evolved hugely as we see more women in senior roles and the support networks have become more visible and developed to empower women to achieve and progress.

As a working mum with two young girls, the constant juggle of school runs, activities and child admin alongside a demanding job is exhausting. However I strive to be a good role model to my children and I want them to believe they can achieve their goals.

What’s the most challenging thing about working in live sport today, or generally, and why?

Live sport is evolving massively as we transition into the digital world. It is a fast-paced environment as the pace of output with daily/weekly events to cover and means you sometimes don’t get chance to take a step back.

The evolution of technology and methods of delivery mean that we can now be more sustainable, collaborative, share content and deliver more efficiently. However, with an increasingly challenging financial environment, tough decisions have to be made on what we do and how we deliver it. Delivering to our audience is key and the shape of the content has to evolve to ensure we do this.

What has been your career path?

I went onto study Media and Business Studies at North Cheshire College, affiliated to Manchester University; this course had a large practical element, work placements and a good grounding in business skills.

I then completed an MA in Video Production at Middlesex University which enabled me to move to London where most of the industry was focussed at that time.

Whilst my aspiration at this time was to get into directing my approach was always to take opportunities in lots of different areas to get breadth of experience. This led to an opportunity with a change in direction to production management as I got a place on a European Social Fund course at the National Film and Television School for a year. I received intensive training and went onto work as a production manager on the graduate films in the main school.

BBC Sport’s Rachel Wright with the core planning team for the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022, on the BBC Sport virtual set with the Salford team, and the Beijing team on the screen. Wright is second from the right next to BBC Sport’s Ron Chakraborty, head of major events and general sport

What was your first job?

After stints of casual work as a runner in post production facilities in Soho, my first job was as a production secretary at Zenith Entertainment. At the time I was doing work experience as an edit assistant at Barraclough Carey for two weeks and the editor Christine Pancott put me in touch with John Pettman, the series producer of the ITV series Blues and Twos. He was looking for a production secretary, we had a cup of tea and he offered me the job.

I was in the right place at the right time; it was a great experience for me as I was given huge support as I quickly learnt about the industry and consolidated my skills. I made contacts within the company in particular Alan Fairholm, the production executive, who was hugely supportive and gave me many opportunities over a two year period.

What other jobs have you had?

My career has been quite varied from working in post production facilities in Soho, working for an indie and then getting my first opportunity at the BBC in the science department on Horizon, a job I had dreamt of for many years being a huge fan of factual long form documentaries.

I have moved around the BBC working across many genres and types of programming including high end documentaries, profiles, low cost one off docs, CGI, drama-docs, dramas, live events and OB’s, magazine and factual entertainment across many departments: science, specialist factual, classical music TV, and a technology project.

Tell us about your current job at the BBC.

I am now a head of production in BBC Sport and am responsible for a varied slate including major events like the Olympics, the cricket slate, the digital live streaming service along with athletics, golf, Rugby Union and League, Ski Sunday, Olympic sports and some indie titles.

It was in 2010 when I moved into sport production. Opportunities were opening up with the move of sport to the Media City site in Salford and I took the plunge and secured a production executive role and decided to leave London which had been my base for 20 years.  I took a huge risk as I was offered a second, unplanned role to the job I had applied for, and I accepted it not knowing what I would be working on.

This risk paid off as after a few months of being in the department I was asked to work on London 2012, a project I would have volunteered to work on as a runner if I could.

My passion is live, large scale events, whether those are sport, performance or creative, and whilst sport wasn’t always an obvious choice for me, I have always been a sport viewer from a young age. As a family we were avid Grandstand viewers on a Saturday afternoon at my Granny’s house.

It was tough joining a department like sport. During my time in classical music I had experienced for the first time a department with barely any staff movement due to their love of music and the challenges this brings particularly during periods of change.

The same applied to sport, and joining a team of people who had grown up together over many decades was a challenging environment to establish myself. I quickly had to apply my outside broadcast skills to sport and get across all the acronyms, nicknames and the pace of live weekly output! The move to Salford was a key moment when the move forced change and a host of new faces joining the team.

What advice would you give to other women looking to move into a role in sports broadcasting like your own?

I would say go for it, production management is a hugely rewarding career as you are at the heart of making things happen and key to a successful delivery of the content whether on linear, audio or digital platforms. As we evolve in a digital world, our roles are becoming more important in ensuring we are collaborative and efficient as we come up with creative production solutions.

I would also say take opportunities as they come, it mightn’t be your dream job but having breadth of experience and being flexible is hugely beneficial, along with stepping outside of your comfort zone and working with a variety of teams and personalities. We are all learning every day and stretching yourself and developing interpersonal skills will give you more to offer to future employers.

The technologies used in sports broadcasting have evolved rapidly over recent years. What for you in your day-to-day job is the most exciting, and what is the biggest gamechanger for this industry overall?

The development of VR and studio solutions has been impressive. The ability to mix VR with live backgrounds views and AR as we did for the Paris Olympics greatly enhances the viewing experience and the ability to be visually creative in content delivery.

Remote production and the cloud has really changed the direction of live sport production as adoption was accelerated in the COVID years. The impact on sustainable broadcasting has been huge and has opened up many different production models of delivery that can be adapted depending on the profile of the event to offer cheaper solutions.

AI is also starting to open up the next wave of change particularly in the digital space.

The development of on screen graphics, analysis, 3D visualisation has been particularly exciting and how this is used to analyse data and athlete performance. These tools enable the sport analysis by our teams of sporting experts and on-air broadcasters to offer extra insight into the technicalities and difficulties of the sport and the physical achievements of athletes.  This really enriches the coverage for the multi sport major events that have such a wider range of sports and disciplines.

What’s the coolest thing you’ve worked on in the course of your career? Why?

Within sport it has to be London 2012, to be part of such an icon national event was a privilege.

Outside of sport, it was a made for TV live event called The Manchester Passion. This was a modern retelling of the story of Jesus Christ featuring music from Manchester bands. It was performed in multiple locations in Manchester City Centre with music provided by a live orchestra in Albert Square. It culminated with Jesus on top of Manchester Town Hall, singing I am the Resurrection by the Stone Roses. It was an extremely complex technical production with multiple OB’s and complex sound design but one that was hugely successful!

On Wednesday 19 March, SVG Europe Women is hosting A City United, a learning, inspiration and networking event taking place at the Hot House in MediaCity, Salford, in association with Dock10. Find out more and register here.