Volvo Ocean Race - TV and online broadcasters gear up

by Volvo Ocean Race on 2 Oct 2014 A stellar list of just under 100 television and digital broadcasters has been lined up to showcase the world’s toughest ocean challenge, the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15, to a new global audience of fans.

The 12th edition has offered channels a line-up of a new 39-part weekly half-hour show plus special short bespoke features and the nine-month event will also be capturing the leg arrivals, departures and in-port races live for digital platforms.

Broadcasters will also take advantage of live links with the fleet giving them the opportunity to interview the sailors as they are competing in the 38,739-mile marathon. There will also be regular, freely available video news releases to keep audiences up to date with all the action.

Among a long list of national and pan-regional broadcasters, who will be scheduling the Volvo Ocean Race, are NBC Sports Network (United States), CCTV (China), Sky Sports (United Kingdom), TV4 (Sweden), Abu Dhabi Sports, M-Net Supersport (pan-Africa), TVE (Spain), Canal+ (France), Sky Italia, N-TV (Germany) and NOS and Fox Netherlands (The Netherlands).

Volvo Ocean Race organisers contracted the television production and distribution company, Sunset+Vine International, part of the Tinopolis Group, to bring new fans to the 41-year regatta that began as the Whitbread Round the World Race.

The London and Oxford-based company also worked on the 2005-06 and 2008-09 editions.

'We would like to reach new audiences beyond our core sailing aficionados by showing the true human challenge of sailing around the world in all conditions – as well as capturing how the sailors’ families cope with a race which is like an addiction for its participants and its followers,' said Volvo Ocean Race News and Media Director Jon Bramley.

'We decided to appoint François Gandolfi as the director of our flagship weekly show – Life at the Extreme. He has no experience of sailing or sports programming, but knows all about filming human stories in hit documentaries and series.'

So far, 94 broadcasters have signed to take the programming with several more expected to follow in the next two weeks.

Sunset+Vine Commercial Director Andrew Piller added: 'The broadcaster list for this year’s Volvo Ocean Race is quite simply breathtaking and we still have nine months of incredible race action coverage to come. We’re really delighted to be delivering this exciting event to a truly global audience.'

The first edition of the Life at the Extreme series will be distributed to broadcasters on October 9, just before the seven-strong fleet departs the race’s home port of Alicante for the first leg to Cape Town two days later. The race concludes in Gothenburg, Sweden on June 27, 2015. Click here for the latest list of contracted Volvo Ocean Race