CMG To Capture 8K at the Winter Olympics 2026
The International Olympics Committee announced that it has granted TV rights for the Chinese Mainland to the China Media Group (CMG) for the Winter Olympics that will take place in February 2026. The games will officially called the XXV Olympic Winter Games or the Milano Cortina 2026 event.
Olympic Games are awarded to cities and the winning hosts were Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo a resort in the Southern Dolomites (Alps) and a popular holiday destination. Although there were difficulties over budgets and timing of facility preparations, the Italian government stepped in to ensure completion in time. Had this not happened, the ‘sliding events’ would have been held in Lake Placid in the USA.
CMG Brings 8K & AI
CMG said that it would be collaborating closely with the organisers to “integrate cutting-edge technologies such as AI and 8K ultra-high-definition broadcasting into live coverage and signal production”. At the Paris Olympics in 2024, CMG sent outside broadcast vans to France to capture 8K content and produced the video content for four of the sports that were featured.
The news from CMG set us looking back at the development of 8K at Winter Olympics events – we have covered the history of 8K at the Summer Olympics previously. We reported in detail on Intel’s live streamed broadcasts of 8K and the 8K Association collaborated in that demonstration. However, sources have suggested that Intel will not be involved in the Milano Cortina 2026 event.
8K at the Winter Olympics
The first 8K capture at the Winter Olympics was when NHK did some tests at the Sochi games back in 2014 when the broadcaster used a pair of Ikegami cameras and showed the content on a Panasonic 145” plasma display with 22.2 channel sound.
In 2018, the PyeongChang games in South Korea saw what was at that time the largest ever live 8K production with NHK collaborating with Olympic Broadcast Services (OBS) and producing 90 hours of recorded content. This time the HDR feature was added to the high resolution. The 8K content was viewed at a special theater in the Olympic International Broadcast Center and also downscaled for broadcasters that were looking for UltraHD 4K feeds.
2022 in Beijing
2022 saw the games hosted in China and the country and we reported that over 80 hours of 8K programming was captured and distributed to CMG’s 8K broadcast channel and to large-screen public viewing venues. China has an established project for “100 cities and 1,000 screens” which has been developing a network of large LEDs up to 8K across the country. China dominates the supply of large direct view LED systems and this project has been rolled out since 2022 to expand the access to the highest quality video viewing in public spaces.
CMG explained in a paper at a SMPTE conference in Hollywood in 2022 how it had used the ST-2110-20 prototocol to split the 8K content into 4 UltraHD HLG streams.
In addition to the CMG initiative, Comcast NBCUniversal also made available 150 hours of streamed 8K VR content from the 2022 games. Cosm, which is a specialist in content for large format venues including planetariums, also played a part in the project.
Sport is Very Impactful Content
It has been the experience of the 8K Association that sport is one of the most impactful types of content for 8K viewing. When Intel demonstrated the live streams from Paris, the impact was tremendous on those viewing. While cinematographers in dramas often look for a certain ‘look’ or exploit softer lenses to give a different mood, watchers of sports often want as much detail and clarity as possible.
The author’s first experience of large screen 8K was in a demonstration of 8K by NHK and JVC at the IBC conference around 10 years ago. The demonstration was of a soccer match in the Copa América tournament. Although not a fan of either of the teams playing, I was pulled immediately into the action. The video showed the whole pitch and it was possible to recognize individual players and watch ‘off the ball’ action as you would at a live event.
Intel’s Ravi Verhal talks about the level of detail that was visible when watching the judo at the Paris Olympics, the details even allowing viewers to see when a competitor lost a contact lens.
That’s the power of 8K in live sport. We’ll be watching for more details on the CMG coverage of the games in Italy.
