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The origins of live sports broadcasting likely pre-date anyone reading this column. In 1936, the Berlin Olympics was shown via closed-circuit television to viewing halls and beer gardens across the city – the first time a live sporting event was transmitted to an audience. A year later, the BBC broadcast Wimbledon live in the UK, followed by NBC in the US airing a college baseball game in 1939. 

Over the decades since, our global love affair with live sport has never waned. Today, tier 1 live events drive the business case for every major pay-TV sports channel and still deliver big audiences on free-to-air. The global sports market will be worth $602bn by 2030, with broadcast and streaming alone accounting for $90bn. 

As on-demand habits replace scheduled viewing in almost every other genre, the drama and unpredictability of live sport continues to offer a safe haven for media owners in otherwise stormy waters. Live sports broadcasting will comfortably reach its century ‘not out’ and ready for more. Innovation in production and broadcast has consistently raised the bar, as sports push to stand out globally. Colour (1966), international satellite (Ali v Frazier, 1975), widescreen, HD, ultra-motion, drones, minicams, remote production, AR, VR, AI – each leap has opened new creative ground.

Aurora’s work launching and developing Formula E, Extreme E, E1, Supertri and the Hexagon Cup gives us a platform to trial and refine emerging tools. Technical and production solutions now shape editorial decisions more than ever. We have six in-house technical producers – a role that either didn’t exist or sat solely within OB companies a decade ago. Not any more. 

Our creative influences come from day-to-day global culture – wearables, gaming, digital design – not just broadcast. The digitisation of live coverage is here to stay: faster to clip, quicker to unpack, made to move across social platforms and tapping into global creator and influencer ecosystems.

Today, sports media is global by default, streamed, shared, clipped and curated across every platform, by federations, fans, clubs, athletes and brands. Our appetite for sharing is insatiable – we want to connect, post, react, remix and participate. As producers or fans, we’re less linear than ever. We watch, listen, chat, scroll, game, then catch the highlights. We’re all in. 

And at the centre of all that is still the live moment. Live sport remains the bullseye – unpredictable, unfiltered and amplified by the most sophisticated toolkit we’ve ever had. AR, VR, data overlays, real-time insights. We see more, know more, and expect more. And the more we get, the more we want. Whether a mature property like Wimbledon or F1, a challenger series like SailGP or LIV Golf, or a new format like the Fifa Club World Cup, the arms race to apply technology and deliver live insight is only accelerating. 

Biometrics, virtual screens, data overlays, AR pointers, ref and ghost cams – this is no longer enhancement, it’s expectation. Our production teams talk about scenes, not shots. We call it layering – multiple visual, data and narrative elements combined to tell the story live. 

The technical language has changed too, with a dizzying array of new technologies. More accurate camera tracking and real-time data integration have enabled increasingly ambitious applications of augmented and virtual reality. 

From live set extensions to tactical overlays, we’re now rendering environments and data visuals in real time, often using the same techniques found in gaming. Graphics producers, and now virtual producers, sit at the heart of our galleries. And yet, for all the trends and technology, this is still a human business. The rise of AI isn’t a threat – it’s another tool, like many before, to be used well or not at all.

Capturing the emotion of a live moment remains a deeply human act, a connection between director, producer, athlete and audience. Sport is about people and stories – some triumphant, some heartwrenching. Careers made, others broken. It reflects who we are, our will to compete, support, endure. 

And in more turbulent times, it still offers an escape. We just have to cut to the right camera, add the right graphic, say the right thing. Ideally, every time. 

Expect more of the same, only faster. Faster workflows, smarter layering, tighter distribution, hyper-personalised content. More data, more fragmentation, more pressure. But the core won’t change. The job is still to tell the story, live and in the moment – with whatever tools help us do it best.