Guy-Laurent Epstein: “It is impossible to avoid AI” 

“Football is the only content that creates appointment viewing in the media landscape,” said Guy-Laurent Epstein, Executive Director, Marketing, UEFA, at the IBC Conference session “Unlocking Growth Through Innovation”. His remit is to drive growth for both audiences and broadcasters. To do this, his team has developed a keen eye for emerging technologies. 

“We are not technologists, but we are early adopters of technology,” he said. “Our live coverage of matches has been very strong for years. Most innovation is ensuring the workflows are as optimised as possible, delivering tools for broadcasters to deliver the best coverage of a club or national team.”   

He cited coverage of Formula 1 and Tour de France as an exciting application of data and graphics to better tell the story of the race in real time.  

“The question is: ‘What is the right data for football that will amplify the way we consume the game?’ The speed of the players perhaps could help us understand the intensity of the action on the pitch.”  

However, he warned, such augmentation “has to go to the first screen, not the phone at this stage.”  

Epstein explained that UEFA is constantly in search of technology that could help it improve service delivery or fan engagement. “It is impossible to avoid AI. Could we deliver one-to-one AI-assisted IP delivery of content in a way people want to enjoy, rather than just the one-to-many satellite delivery?” 

“Our team is at IBC to ensure we are on top of innovations and also to network with all the suppliers here in just a few days. IBC is also our chance to benchmark our existing solutions with new tech from other suppliers.”