15


IBC 2021 INTERNATIONAL HONOUR FOR EXCELLENCE: BBC SPORT’S BARBARA SLATER


Barbara Slater, BBC director of sport, has been awarded the IBC 2021 International Honour for Excellence in recognition of her career and for bringing women to the fore in sports broadcasting. She spoke to IBC about her career and achievements, and the technological innovations she has overseen at BBC Sport


BY MICHAEL BURNS


Barbara Slater was an athlete before she was in television production, initially a talented diver, then an international gymnast who competed at the Olympic Games in Montreal in 1976. Her big move into sports broadcasting came after retiring from competitive gymnastics in the early 1980s. “When I joined BBC Sport back in 1983, there were very few women. I joined on a training scheme, and what made an enormous difference was the fact that I had been an athlete,” says Slater. “That sort of scepticism – does a woman really know, does she get this? – was something they couldn’t say because, at that time, I was probably the only member of the department who had actually competed in an Olympics. I had a degree of acceptance and credibility because of that background. “I remember being advised: ‘Keep your head down, they


don’t like noisy people, they don’t particularly like women’. And I just totally ignored that advice. [During that scheme] for six months I asked to do as much, and try as many different things, as I could. Off the back of that, I applied for one of the assistant producer jobs and was successful.” Slater worked her way up to doing some fl edgling outside broadcasts (OBs). “I was able to start on smaller events,” she says. “Essentially there was no training school for sports directors, you learn on the job. I spent hours in the library looking at how events had been covered in the past, trying to take from that coverage what worked, what didn’t work. Gradually, the OBs you do get more and more ambitious. I just always loved being in that director’s chair. I remember doing three cameras on outside courts at Wimbledon and I was determined to try and make three cameras look like I had 20.” “By the way, it’s entirely different now. You don’t have to compete in the Olympics to get a job in BBC Sport,” she adds. “But you have to have a passion for it and that applies across genders. We’ve got some fantastic female talent in many roles as commentators, as reporters, as pundits and as presenters.”


Slater has also observed a “dramatic change in attitude” towards the coverage of women’s sport, but it’s been an all-too recent one. “For too many years, women’s sports were seen as somehow second class. I’m so impressed and delighted about the momentum that we currently have behind women’s sport, and I feel really proud of the role that the BBC has played in that.” Slater was appointed director of sport at the BBC in 2009. “Of course, by that time, we had the 2012 Olympics on the horizon,” she says. “This was such an amazing opportunity for the UK, let alone the sports broadcast industry, to have a global event like the Olympics coming [here]. There was


real determination inside the organisation to be incredibly ambitious in that coverage. We did a lot of audience research to track through the Games and it’s no exaggeration to say this lifted the whole mood of the nation. I think everyone was so proud of what was achieved with the coverage of 2012.” Slater says such major global competitions result in a step- change in the way that events are broadcast. “You could go back as far as the Athens Olympics [in 2004], and the Red Button was fi rst introduced,” she says. “Then you move on to Beijing, where you started to see digital access increase signifi cantly. In 2012, it was taken to another level, it was the fi rst time that we had multiple streams. There was a choice for everyone.”


“It’s entirely different now.


You don’t have to compete in the Olympics to get a job in BBC Sport,” Barbara Slater, BBC Sport


“At that time, [multiple streaming] was just a one-off opportunity, almost a special construct, but what we now have is the ability to effectively ‘do a 2012’ every single day,” she continues. “We work with of a lot of sports governing bodies to showcase their sport. Every weekend of the year there’ll be a choice on our streaming platforms, complemented by our BBC Sport website. So we offer not just the big network TV moments, but also the incredible richness that’s offered by our digital platforms.”


REMOTE CONTROL BBC Sport has innovated in response to other factors too, most recently with the impact of Covid. “If we turn the clock back to early 2020 I remember things unfolding at incredible speed,” she recalls. “It was an extraordinary technological feat to keep services going.” Covid accelerated BBC plans for remote production by


around four years. “Across our production base in Salford, we now have several remote galleries where the individual camera feeds are coming in, as opposed to having to send people on site. We’ve shown extraordinary innovation and adaptability,” she says. “Not only have we covered events like domestic cricket and the Premier League [remotely], but we had events like the Tokyo Olympics, where we did the bulk of the production from Salford. “That was an entirely new production model that was set up in a very short space of time. Commentary was being done from here, as well as production and presentation. I am sure that in terms of remote production this terrible period of time will leave an extraordinary legacy.”


Slater: “I think everyone was so proud of what was achieved with the coverage of 2012”


It also chimes with sustainability. “We’ve suddenly got that raising of awareness and sense of responsibility that the industry has towards a sustainable future,” she adds. “Remote production has to be integral to that, actually being able to produce these events in the most effi cient and sustainable way is really important.”


For a career in sports broadcasting and leading the way in establishing women’s sport and bringing women to the fore in sports broadcasting, the IBC2021 International Honour for Excellence was presented to Barbara Slater at the IBC Innovation Awards on the 23 November, held on IBC Digital. “Disparities still exist between men and women’s sport in terms of viewership and coverage, but Barbara Slater has played a pivotal role in helping level the playing fi eld during her time at BBC Sport,” said Michael Crimp, CEO of IBC. “It’s hugely appropriate we recognise Barbara Slater for her commitment to technological excellence and equality in sports broadcasting.” “I am extremely honoured to receive this prestigious


award,” said Slater. “I am so proud of my career in sports broadcasting and would like to say a huge thank you to IBC for this accolade, which in turn recognises the signifi cant advancements women’s sport has made.”


Watch the full interview on IBC Digital


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72