Sports production and reduction of carbon emissions

A group of broadcasters, rights owners and technology providers collaborate as part of the program Accelerator Media Innovation Programme of IBC to reduce the carbon footprint in the production of sporting events such as the English Premier League.

This collaboration has shown that innovative cloud and remote production workflows can meet ambitious sustainability goals and reduce the environmental impact of live production.

The project team is headed by BBC Sport, BT Sport, Sky Sport, Premier League Productions and international rights holders NBCUniversal y SuperSport, next to the Premier League English, IMG/Premier League Productions y albert (BAFTA's initiative to support more sustainable production) by experimenting with multi-vendor cloud technologies, formats and workflows, sharing camera sources, audio, graphics and human resources to avoid duplication and reduce travel and other energy requirements in the production chain.

High-level findings from the trial include confirmation that cloud production reduces the amount of technical infrastructure necessary for gallery production, for some stations up to 70%. Cloud production was also shown to further reduce the requirements for important on-site technical installations by allowing signals to be sent quickly and easily to multiple locations.

The project team deployed bespoke workflows and architectures alongside traditional outdoor broadcast production to compare and contrast carbon footprints, in a collaborative “proof of concept” demonstration during the Premier League match between Liverpool and Newcastle United on 16 December 2021.

The initiative will drive new research that supports reducing the carbon footprint for the sector, providing industry benchmarks and more measurable insights into live production for the first time.

The project technology is provided by Amazon Web Services, Blackbird, Hitomi, Microsoft, M2A Media, Singular Live y Zixi.

Main conclusions

The main conclusions of the project, revealed and explained by the companies involved, can be followed on IBC Digital, IBC's on-demand content platform. The panel, which includes representatives from BT Sport, Sky Sports, BBC Sport and the Premier League, discuss results, learnings and potential benchmarks, and will share further insights with the industry through the publication of a whitepaper and discussions at upcoming industry events in the coming weeks.

“Improving sustainability has become the number one priority in the media and entertainment production sector,” he said. Andy Beale, project manager and chief engineer at BT Sport. "The future of our planet depends on a collective effort to become net zero carbon. With this IBC Accelerator project, we wanted to tangibly and jointly experiment to understand the alternatives to traditional mobile production in live sport, with the aim of making carbon metrics more available so that companies can compare what they are doing and help motivate them to do more to reduce their own carbon footprints."

“Reducing carbon emissions attributed to the production of our sports programming is of huge importance – and an important part of Sky's ambitions to achieve its target of net zero carbon emissions by 2030,” he added. No Ruehls, executive director of Sky Production and Operations Services. "The promising trial results demonstrate that the industry's goal of dramatically reducing emissions through means such as cloud production workflows is very achievable. If the industry continues to work together toward this goal, it can make a big difference."

The initiative builds on the significant progress made to date in the British television and film industries, while providing a basis for future research into sustainability in live production and to improve its measurement. Albert, the industry body that enables production companies to track their carbon footprint, has already helped contribute to a 10% drop in the amount of carbon an hour of television contributes to the atmosphere (from 10.2 tCO2e/hour equivalent in 2017 to 9.2 tCO2e/hour in 2019). Until recently, Albert had not tracked the connectivity and carbon impact of the industry's transition from satellite and fiber