Power sharing at the stadium

In live sport – every moment counts – when we settle in to watch a game on TV, there’s upwards of 150 people on site, and even more back at base making sure that every goal, try, match point or hole in one is seen as it happens, from every conceivable angle.  For many, sport is an essential part of the fabric of life which we’ve realised only too starkly with the recent lockdown and the stakes for broadcasters are high. Missing any of the action can cost them big – potentially their contract. So changes which carry an element of risk, no matter how small, can’t be implemented easily.

But for an intrepid group in the sport broadcast community spearheaded by Sky Sports, Premier League Productions and BT Sports  – the need to reduce their overall environmental impact was an important focus and one which was worth pursuing in spite of the risks. They set up an OB Green Team to investigate what they could do.

Like all productions, the team identified that one of the biggest elements of their collective carbon footprint was the use of power. The power needed for each football game that’s broadcast is huge so using the house power at the stadium wasn’t an option. Instead, each production team would organise and bring their own generators.