2020 was going to be a big year for sports. The Olympics, the Euros and so much more were going to be at the top of anyone’s list of must-watch telly. But in these times, huge gatherings of spectators aren’t a possibility and the must-watch moments of 2020 have been postponed until 2021.
We caught up with Philip Bernie, Head of TV Sport to see what the BBC’s doing during the strange sporting times.
How much of a shock was it when sporting events were postponed until next year?
It wasn’t so much of a shock as such, we could see the issues around staging large sporting events and all that entails, with the numbers of people gathering together. Once we’d hit the point of locking down, it was pretty clear what was going to happen.
Everyone knew that sport was going to be affected by it and it has been very badly affected by it. So, it wasn’t a shock, but it was a huge disappointment that we wouldn’t be able to watch and share the experiences.
What sport can people expect to watch while in lockdown and until 2021?
It’s not going to be the same and we know that. We aren’t able to show the unique drama and thrills that live sport can provide. We can’t wait to get back to showing that as soon as it’s safe and sensible to do so.
We’ve been working hard on showing output every weekend. We’ve regular football shows with Football Focus Rewinds and the Match Of The Day Podcast, still giving people their football fix. Other sports including rugby league and the marathon last weekend, golf have also done some great rewind and recaptures with their sports to substitute where it would have been live.
We’re also planning for what we can do in the summer because as well as football, we’re also losing the Oltmpics, Wimbledon and the cricket, which are huge events. In each case we’re looking at what we can provide, giving people the sports they love but in a different guise.
How important is sport in bringing people together?
It’s incredibly important and the BBC has a big part to play. Free-to-air sport is really important in bringing a nation together, as it does around the Olympic Games and World Cups where you get extraordinary audiences of over 20 million, which are hard to replicate, if at all. That’s because the nation genuinely comes together to celebrate great sporting moments, particularly involving our nation and it’s important to get these moments to as many people as possible.
Some of the greatest moments in sporting history have been shown on free-to-air TV. I’m a massive sports fan and I think the way that these moments affect a nation as we’ve seen with the 2012 Olympics are amazing and will be important for life after lockdown. I think that people will value, more than ever, the sense of community and coming together that sport can bring.
How did you become Head of TV Sport?
Good fortune! I’m lucky enough to have a job that I love and working in sport for a long time. I started as a trainee in production, then fairly quickly came into TV sport became editor and moved onto developing programmes and eventually began leading the teams.
Do you have any advice for someone who wants to work in TV sport?
The main thing I’d say is to keep persevering. It’s hard to get into the broadcast industry as a whole. There’s a lot of people who want to work in broadcast but there are only so many jobs available.
A great thing to do is start to create a portfolio of work. You must love sport, but you also need to show that you can talk, report or communicate about it effectively. Obviously, you need to pay the bills and it’s not always easy to get into the industry straightaway. Even if you’re working somewhere else, try and do something outside of work to hone your skills for the job you want and then, when the time comes, you’ve got something to show.