Milano Cortina 2026: Winter Olympics Host Broadcaster Rules Out Remote Production
Is the Olympic Committee's host broadcaster warming to the notion of transitioning to virtual or REMI production for this winter's fast-approaching Milan Cortina games? Yiannis Exarchos, CEO, Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) insists that virtualizing broadcast and streaming workflows on such concentrated scale is simply not "realistic." Speaking as part of a roundtable event three weeks out from the opening ceremony of the Milan Cortina XXV Winter Games (MC26) in Northern Italy, Exarchos explained that the sheer scale of an Olympics and current technological limitations on behalf of rights-holding broadcasters meant elimination of a physical International Broadcast Center (IBC) is not likely soon, or even desirable.
“We need to understand the sheer physical realities of an Olympic Games,” he said. “In Milan Cortina we will have 6,000 broadcasters present. Why? Because they want to be close to the action and this is entirely legitimate. Most of them need to do that. We should remember, not all broadcasters are at the same level of development as NBC [which has a huge remote operation for the Olympics out of its home base in Connecticut]. Even if we imagine that all broadcasters could receive all the signals remotely at home they simply don't have the capacity in their existing facilities to deal with it all.”
Yiannis Exarchos, CEO, Olympic Broadcasting Services
For this Winter Games OBS will produce 1,000 hours of competition coverage and another 5,000 hours of additional support material for rights holders to tailor their coverage across multiple platforms. In the Summer Olympics, that volume doubles.
“Even a big TV network would only produce this amount of content over three years,” he said. “No broadcaster is set up to be handling this volume in such a short period. This is why remote working in the case of the Olympics is only half the solution. The ultimate solution is virtualized broadcasting, meaning that you actually do not really need a proper physical facility to transport media.”
He contrasted the unique Olympic production to that of the next largest global sports event, the FIFA World Cup. “You might have four football matches every day but can do that completely remotely including with a commentator reporter, but here you have, at times, 27 events going on at the same time.
At the Paris Games over 24,000 media were present, more than double the number of athletes. “It is too much, but it's not like we can make things to have only one thousand media representatives,” he said. “Actually, this would mean that there is no interest in the Games. What we don't want is that they are forced to bring people here to do something that they could be doing on the other side of the world. We do not want them to come if their role can be easily replicated remotely.”
The Virtual OB van (VOB) model introduced in Tokyo then Paris continues to advance with a virtualized, private COTS cloud-based infrastructure. The VOB delivers over 50% savings in compound space, up to 50% lower power use and reduced costs by replacing bespoke OB vans with industry-standard cabins, enabling remote production for curling, sliding sports, and speed skating.
Technology is not the goal – it is the enabler
“If you had a completely virtualized Olympics, this would not be an Olympics, because things that are very human are incredibly important for what we do and for our values and for the creation of emotion," Exarchos said. "Even if technology allowed for a complete virtualization of broadcasting there needs to be a measured approach.
“Technology is not the goal – it is the enabler,” he insisted. “Every innovation we adopt is driven by the purpose of elevating the Olympic experience for audiences around the world. For Milano Cortina 2026, our focus is not on a single innovation, but on the ability to integrate and scale multiple new technologies to Olympic level. This approach will enable us to deliver the most immersive and dynamic Olympic Winter Games broadcast to date.”
Beginning a decade ago at the Rio Olympics OBS began to switch out hardware broadcast technologies for IP systems running on COTs. It began this journey long before most broadcasters and is now reaping the dividends since in Milan the IBC is 25% smaller than in Beijing 2022 with a 33% reduction in power.
In Milan OBS is piloting a fully cloud-based Master Control Room and virtualized technical operations centers. These will also be used at the Youth Games in Dakar later this year where it is claimed will deliver 75% less rack space, use 65% lower power and a 50% faster IBC rollout
For LA28 further gains of ~40% space and ~30% power reductions are expected, with earlier system testing ahead of venue readiness.
Cloud expanded with Alibaba
Media functions are no longer confined to the IBC, but extend across both the IBC and competition venues, enabling more efficient workflows for OBS and MRHs. This enables MRHs to manage their own content selection via cloud-based switching, reducing reliance on on-site infrastructure.
The resulting hybrid model, combining private and public cloud, results in a reduction in the size of the IBC and associated power consumption, contributing to lower carbon costs. This approach has become the industry standard for global content distribution, particularly for UHD and HDR live transmission (the master production format for MC26 is 4K HDR).
Working with tech partners
Samsung is another tech giant at Milan Cortina and providing backing for live feeds to mobile phone for the first time.
“The good thing is that because of the importance of the Olympics, a lot of the companies in the industry feel that it's beneficial for them to be investing in the Olympic Games for moving forward themselves for adopting new technologies,” Exarchos said.
Out of the IBC during the Games will be internet traffic feeding broadcasters across the world representing 70 percent of Milan’s normal internet connectivity of the city of Milan. “The capacity that is used for the games would allow you to download a full 4K feature film in half a second,” he said. “This is serious infrastructure and takes time to be developed.”
Key to local connectivity, especially in the remote and under connected mountain regions is Telecom Italia. “Because of the distributed geography of Milano Cortina you will be losing essentially a working day moving from one location to another, and also there are limitations in terms of accommodation availability. The [3 venues outside of Milan] are small places not massive, industrialized skiing areas and this is part of their charm and their beauty. From day one, and we insistent on that we have a system that enables broadcasters to do anything from everywhere, to be able to work very, very easily and cover other venues making remote connections and remote interviews. This capacity did not exist in the mountains until now. This technological capacity is a very significant legacy of the games that's being done by Telecom Italia.”
New production innovation at MC26
Drones entered the Olympics as a production tool at Sochi. Now FPV drones will be used across a range of outdoor winter sports, delivering dynamic first-person perspectives that follow athletes through competition courses. For the first time at a Winter Games, FPV drones will also be used in sliding sports, showcasing the speed and intensity of these events.
Exarchos said, “This new generation of technology allows for a very safe use of drones which go very close to the action and offer you a sense of being part of the competition. In many of the sports you will be see images that we have not seen before.”
For the first time and in collaboration with Alibaba, OBS is introducing real-time 360-degree replays, a combination of multi-camera replay systems and stroboscopic analysis delivering multi-angle views, freeze frames, and slow-motion sequences that showcase skill, technique, and moments of precision.
Breaking new ground at the Olympic Winter Games, an advanced tracking system for curling will visualize each stone’s path, speed, rotation, and timing in real time. Subtle trajectory graphics and live data reveal strategic elements as play unfolds, complemented by a new overhead rail camera and ice-level views that enhance storytelling and viewer understanding.
OBS is testing an Automatic Media Description (AMD) platform to help teams manage the huge volume of live video from the Games. AI breaks broadcasts into searchable clips, suggests shot descriptions and keywords, and helps users quickly find key moments or highlights, making storytelling faster and easier.
For the first time at an Olympic Winter Games, automated highlights will transform the journey from moment to media, delivering ready-to-publish clips to every platform within minutes, “all while preserving the highest editorial standards” it is claimed. For comparison more than 100,000 highlights were generated during the Paris 2024 Games.
Raquel Rozados, OBS Head of Broadcaster Services, says, “Our focus is enabling MRHs to deliver the Games anytime, anywhere, on any device. For Milano Cortina 2026, we’re scaling personalized highlights, expanding behind-the-scenes content, offering immersive VR experiences, and using flexible cloud distribution workflows, along with a richer offering of short-form social media clips, providing MRHs with greater agility to tailor their coverage for diverse audiences.”
Olympic GPT
MC26 will be the public debut of an AI-driven search of content on Olympics.com. This solution will deliver, for the first time, real-time results during the Games and will have the capacity to answer questions about the current state of events. For the first time, AI-powered article summaries on Olympics.com give fans a overview at the top of select stories.
“As with everything in the Olympics the challenge is accuracy, quality and control,” said Exarchos. “Most LLMs rely on the information that's out there on the internet, but we know that this information can be biased. Even leaving aside the ethical consideration, if you want to train an AI model on certain sports like football, tennis or basketball you can but you will not find this amount of data for every single Olympic sport. This is where it was very important in collaboration with Alibaba and with the technology team of the IOC and OBS that we brought in the experience, the terminology, the videos, and specific information that relates to the Olympics.
“We have the biggest repository of correct quality controlled data around the Olympics in the world. Every single statistic for every single competition and athlete exists there and it's correct. This is what is feeding this system and not what randomly may have been mentioned somewhere on the internet. We are also learning out of it and we are humble. There may be mistakes but we are pretty confident about what is being delivered. We have been testing intensely and seems to be working very well.”
With Winter sports federations the IOC is launching an analytics data project for MC26, where data will be exchanged. The IOC will gain deeper insights into digital sports consumption, trends and behaviours from partners’ data. Federations will access advanced data visualizations that combine sources to support their data-driven decision-making.
United in solidarity
The Winter Games begins on 4 February running until Feb. 22. “I must admit on a personal level, that following the news every day makes me want for this opening ceremony to come as early as possible,” Exarchos said. “Because I think these games can really help us recalibrate a little bit how we feel about the world and how we feel about the relations between people. What is uniquely part of the Olympics is its ability to bring people together. I feel that it's one of these times in human history where we need it so much.”
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