Olympic Broadcasting Services

Olympic Broadcasting Services S.L. (OBS) is a limited liability company which was established by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2001 in order to serve as the Host Broadcaster organisation for all Summer Olympic Games, Summer Paralympic Games, Winter Olympic Games, Winter Paralympic Games, Summer Youth Olympic Games and Winter Youth Olympic Games, maintaining the standards of Olympic broadcasting between each edition. Headquartered in Madrid, Spain, the company operates as a subsidiary of Olympic Broadcasting Services S.A. (Lausanne, Switzerland), which is owned by the International Olympic Committee through the Olympic Foundation.

As host broadcaster, OBS is responsible for delivering the pictures and sounds of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to billions of viewers around the world. It produces and transmits unbiased live radio and television coverage of every sport from every venue. This feed is called the International Signal, or the World Feed, and is distributed as a service to all broadcast organisations who have purchased the television and radio rights to the Games (known as Media Rights Holding Broadcasters or MRHs).

In collaboration with the Local Organising Committee, OBS supervises the development of the necessary infrastructure (particularly the International Broadcast Centre (IBC), which serves as the primary base of broadcast operations for OBS and the Media Rights Holders (MRHs) during the Games) and facilities at the various Olympic venues to ensure the successful broadcast production of the Games. OBS also offers additional services, equipment and supplies to the MRHs to assist their unilateral productions.

The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver marked the advent of OBS as host broadcaster. Previously that role had been was delegated to the local organising committees or even third-party broadcasters, a situation which necessitated a total rebuild of the omnibus broadcast operation each edition of the Games.

For each edition of the Olympic Games, OBS has introduced new production technologies and methods aimed at improving broadcast efficiency, enhancing content delivery, and expanding access across platforms. These developments have supported MRHs in reaching wider audiences through both traditional and digital channels.

Notable innovations by Games edition include:

OBS's operations began with the Olympic Games Beijing 2008, where Beijing Olympic Broadcasting (BOB), a joint venture between OBS and the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, acted as the host broadcasting consortium (along with the state television network, China Central Television, which is one of the host nation broadcasters of the Olympic Games).

For the first time in history, an Olympic Games' edition took place in China and OBS provided a then-record more than 5000 hours of coverage, 32% more than for the Olympic Games Athens 2004.