Olympics: Warner Bros. Discovery Goes Big on Paris Games Coverage, Launches Splashy Rooftop Production Hub

Warner Bros. Discovery will centralize its Paris 2024 coverage with splashy open-air production hub offering panoramic views and ample studio space, as the newly-merged media company marks its first Olympic Games.

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Nicknamed WBD House and built atop Paris’ Hotel Raphaël – a five-star haven just off the Champs Élysées that was last seen playing itself the 2022 HBO miniseries “Irma Vep” – the rooftop facility will anchor commentary in 13 markets, and houses four studios and three stand-up positions, with each vantage presenting a different, post-card view of the Parisian skyline – and thus many of this year’s competition sites.

“More immersive storytelling is the most innovative way we can help audiences really enjoy the Olympics,” WBD Sports exec Scott Young said at the venue on the eve of the opening ceremony. “And once we saw how the Paris 2024 organizing committee used so many of the city’s amazing backdrops as venues, we then had to follow suit.”

With 190 on-site crew-members technicians, the four-studio set-up should make for greater flexibility, allowing different programs from different markets to benefit from the same sets – and then to switch up backgrounds from day to day.

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Pairing those production value with access, the WBD House hub will be home base for WBD’s pay-tv group Eurosport and will anchor CNN’s Paris perch. This one-stop-shop will also hope to lure top guests with time efficiency, letting commentators traverse the globe with a simple stroll, or to kick back at a lounge should they opt to linger.

“An athlete or VIP guest can hit up to seven or eight markets by walking across this rooftop,” says Young. “So instead of getting back in a car and going to the next location, they can do the UK, Sweden, Italy or Poland, France, Germany, CNN, and Norway, and then get back in the lift and walk out the door. That’s the real superpower of what we’ve been able to do here.”

Promising “wall-to-wall” coverage of the upcoming games, WBD’s pay-tv banner Eurosport will broadcast 3,800 live hours including all 329 medal events. All 32 Olympic sports will have a dedicated page through Max or Discovery+, depending on the territory. All together, service will reach 47 markets and present coverage in 19 languages.

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