The Summer Olympic Games in Paris will be revolutionary from the point of view of the television viewer. This can practically be written about every major sporting event, which is always associated with technical innovations, but it is doubly true of the Summer Olympics. At the moment, we know that Czech Television, as a public broadcaster, is only authorised to offer the Olympic competitions on one linear programme. In the case of the coincidence of two medal fights with Czech participation, it has negotiated with Warner Bros. Discovery and can use the internet stream for the live broadcast.
The home of the Olympic Games will instead be Eurosport, or the streaming service Max, which replaced the HBO Max video library this year. The Olympic programming schedule will consist of more than 3,800 hours of live sports coverage. Press materials provided by WBD to reporters indicate that the broadcasts are to be available to fans in Europe in HDR, or high dynamic range, which, in simple terms, delivers a significantly greater colour gamut than viewers are used to with traditional broadcasts.
Max as an attraction for LOH and new subscribers
Warner Bros. Discovery has timed the launch of the Max video library to offer its subscribers complete coverage of the Olympic Games, at no extra cost. "The Paris 2024 Olympics are included in all Max subscription options. Just get a subscription and you can start watching," Warner Bros. confirms on its website. Discovery. Customers who have acquired a video library directly through their pay-TV operator will also be able to access the complete coverage. After signing the contracts, the service is offered only in the Standard version.
With HDR, or high dynamic range, technology, fans across Europe will be able to enjoy live and uninterrupted coverage of all 329 medal competitions as well as the opening and closing ceremonies. Users will be able to switch freely between different camera angles and choose from 20 language localisations. More than four hundred TV sports presenters will be in charge of moderating the broadcasts. The Czech Republic will be part of the expert team along with Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria. The home representative will be tennis player Lucie Šafářová.
Eurosport 4K and its availability
The place where the Olympic Games should be available in the highest resolution, if we are talking about a classic linear broadcast, will be Eurosport 4K. However, there is a problem with its availability in the offers of Czech operators. After approximately two years, the programme was taken out of service by T-Mobile this year and is only occasionally offered by Antik Telecom as a pop up (temporary) channel. Antik customers can watch Wimbledon tennis on this channel from 1 to 15 July.
Each of the 32 Olympic sports will have its own dedicated page in the Max video library, from which platform users will be able to add specific competitions to the List to watch. In addition, timelines will be available for 15 sports - these will record key moments for users to choose from and switch between. An online version of simpliTV offered the same service to its customers in neighbouring Austria. Viewers were able to try out the tagged timeline during the Euro football.
French TV's Olympic Channel
With the Summer Olympics to be held in Paris, the French public broadcaster took advantage of the special occasion by launching a special online channel "france.tv Paris 2024" as early as 8 May. Although it is not officially available on the territory of the Czech Republic, the restrictions set (geoblocation) can be easily circumvented using commonly available services. One of them is Surfshark VPN, popular among Czech youtubers such as Kluci z Prahy, Hroty Algernona and some others. A VPN will also allow you to use a number of official free video libraries from abroad directly on your Smart TV, for example.
France.tv Paris 2024 offers news and complete information regarding the Summer Olympics. The station is also available directly on the website https://www.france.tv/sport/les-jeux-olympiques/. France.tv Paris 2024 is to complement the service on France 2 and France 3 channels, which will be transformed completely into Olympic programming. Special broadcasts are to include sports such as basketball or BMX, among others. For the record, this year the French public broadcaster also extended its streaming service to include thematic channels "france.tv docs" and "france.tv séries".
Source: mam.cz
