News | 22 July 2024
An Olympic dream which has burned since Barcelona in 1992 will once again reignite this Summer for Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Joe Towns.
Joe, Innovation Lead for Sport Broadcast Media in the Cardiff School of Sport & Health Sciences, will be working as a Senior Television Producer for Olympic Broadcast Services (OBS) during the Paris Games.
This prestigious role will have Joe overseeing the live TV coverage and output for the Olympic Broadcast Channels from the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) in Paris.
OBS, the official host broadcast organisation for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, is responsible for producing the live television, radio, and digital coverage that captivates billions of viewers worldwide, delivering neutral, high-quality coverage of all sports competitions, as well as the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. OBS also supports broadcasters globally, helping them personalise coverage with additional services, commentary and interviews tailored for their domestic audiences.
While this marks Joe’s first time working with OBS, he is no stranger to the Olympics. Joe’s Olympic journey began in 2000, when he covered the Sydney Olympics for the South Wales Evening Post while starting out as a sports journalist and backpacking across Australia. He later worked for BBC Sport on the award-winning production of the 2012 London Olympics and was again called up for Olympic duty with the BBC at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where he spent three weeks in Brazil as part of the BBC Network Sport Creative Team.
Reflecting on this new opportunity, Joe shared his excitement and the significance of the role: “As a Sport Broadcast professional and a senior lecturer in sport broadcasting it feels like a dream to go and work at the world’s biggest sport broadcast production where I’ll be part of a team delivering Olympic coverage to billions of viewers worldwide.
“It’s not like working for the BBC and favouring British athletes and stories, this coverage has to be unbiased and broadcasters around the world have paid a lot of money to get accurate, clean, high quality, impartial coverage – so it will be a high pressured live environment every day.
Joe’s hands-on experience with the latest technologies and best practices in the broadcast media industry during the Paris Olympics will undoubtedly enrich the learning environment for Cardiff Met’s Sport Broadcast Media students.
He said: “The broadcast media industry moves incredibly fast and it feels hard sometimes to keep up. At this Olympics, OBS will be using the latest tech, the best cameras, and employing the very best operators in the broadcast business to deliver the coverage so it feels an honour to be part of it and will give me so much to tell the students about come next term.”
Joe’s Olympic journey began long before his professional career, when he attended the Barcelona Olympics with his family in 1992. The experience ignited his love for the Olympics and set him on a path that has seen him cover multiple Games.
Joe said: “I remember going to watch the Olympic Relay Sprint Heats in the Athletics Stadium one morning, and then walking across the city to watch the Dream Team Final at the Basketball Arena, USA vs. Croatia.
“I thought how much I’d love to work at an Olympics one day. Each Olympics I’ve covered has been an incredible experience, and I’m sure this will be no different.”
