“I don’t believe that automation kills creativity – it’s the opposite.”
Alessandro Reitano
Senior Vice President of Sports Production, Sky Germany
In sports broadcasting, the game has changed. It’s no longer enough to simply deliver the live feed; modern viewers – especially younger audiences – expect an immersive, data-rich, and instantly available experiences across multiple platforms.
“As leaders in premium sports coverage, Sky is navigating this transition by leveraging three core technological pillars. These advancements are not just helping us run our current operations; they are fundamentally reshaping how we tell stories and connect with our diverse audience,” says Alessandro Reitano, Senior Vice President of Sports Production, Sky Germany.
Pillar 1: Data Visualization and Storytelling
“The first major impact I’ve seen over the past decade is how we utilize data. We produce more than 30,000 hours of sports every year. The sheer volume of real-time statistics now available is immense, but the challenge is transforming raw numbers into digestible drama.”
Sky focuses on two key outcomes:
- Better Storytelling: Data is employed to help build narratives around momentum, strategy, and individual performance.
- Immersive Understanding: Data is visualized so it becomes more immersive, more ‘touchable’, and offers viewers more insight.
The goal is to move beyond text overlays and use advanced visualization – whether through 3D analysis, augmented reality (AR), or virtual studio environments – to give viewers a deeper, instantaneous understanding of the game. Data visualization and data storytelling are now one of Sky’s most critical focus areas.
Pillar 2: AI for Scaling the “Content Supermarket”
The second significant change is the shift from linear broadcasting to distributing a “wide portfolio” of content across numerous channels and platforms.
“We are now running a content supermarket, and we have to fill every shelf.
“To serve this complexity, AI is becoming indispensable for streamlining and scaling our product output across all channels. We are no longer broadcasting only on linear channels like we did 10 years ago. Today, we manage a vast content portfolio. This means that at the end of the day, you have to completely streamline your process.”
AI helps handle repetitive tasks, ensuring that bespoke content, clips, and highlights are generated, formatted, aggregated and distributed efficiently to meet the demands of linear TV, mobile apps, social media, streaming and on-demand services, all without massive staffing increases.
Pillar 3: Automation as a Creative Enabler
The final pillar, and perhaps the most misunderstood, is automation. Historically, some in the industry viewed automation as a threat to creative roles – something strictly for efficiency or cost-cutting in news.
“I believe the opposite is true. Automation, when embraced correctly, is a catalyst for innovation.
“We approach our vendor partnerships, asking not just for efficiency, but: ‘How can you help me to produce this piece or this studio show or this kind of live event with automation, while keeping it very innovative and very creative?’”
As Alessandro explains, automation frees the directors and producers from the tedious, repetitive, technical steps of the production workflow. This freedom allows them to:
- Keep Innovation: Introduce new visual elements, studio layouts, and AR graphics because the technical execution is reliable and predictable.
- Keep Creativity: Focus their energy entirely on storytelling and directorial timing, knowing the system will handle the synchronization of graphics, cameras, and lights in the production control room.
“Automation helps us overcome technical and scalability problems, allowing us to keep creativity and innovation at the forefront. This approach has allowed us to win over even some of the more old school people, by demonstrating that the automated output is ultimately superior and more creative than the manual process it replaces.”
It's a collaborative way: we talk to our partners and say, 'I am introducing automation, and not just for the sake of efficiency, but because I want a very innovative, creative, and scalable workflow. Help me achieve that.' This is how we must work with partners, and this is how we convince the naysayers that the output is better and more creative.
Alessandro Reitano
Senior Vice President of Sports Production, Sky Germany
The Future is Immersive and Scalable
For sports broadcasters, the future is clear: success relies on leveraging data to create dynamic, immersive viewer experiences, using AI to scale that content across every platform, and implementing sophisticated automation to ensure the creative vision is executed flawlessly, time after time.
“Live sports is still our main event. But at the same time, you have to change your mindset and have subsidiary content for the wide range of viewers, and for every platform that you are on. We have 10 million touchpoints on social media. Our editorial team is crucial here, and decides what is the right story for the audience on the different platforms. It’s quality before quantity. That’s why even with AI, it is always important to have humans, people, in the loop.”
This article is based on an interview with Alessandro Reitano, Senior Vice President of Sports Production, Sky Germany in October 2025.
