Please select your home edition
Edition
Hyde Sails 2024 - One Design

Global sailing events - Free to air or Pay per View?

by Rob Kothe & Jedda Murphy on 27 Jul 2015
2015 Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series Portsmouth Ian Roman http://www.ianroman.com
The Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series event in Portsmouth and the LandRover Extreme 40 series racing in Hamburg on the weekend, both with tightly packaged vision content, showed a bright future for modern spectator-friendly racing.

The LandRover Extreme 40 series has bootstrapped itself into a remarkably strong position in recent years, just by offering what audiences want, spectacular racing, with audiences close to the action and the Louis Vuitton World Series is following suite.



While sailing media have always enjoyed the breathtaking action on the start line from just below the pin, from the starboard lay line at the top mark and midcourse, the wider sailing audience have not had that privilege.

Now days on boat vision and sound delivers a whole new world.

Incredibly being on a media boat can these days rob sailing media of much of the race experience. Once upon a time, media centres emptied an hour before start time, as sailing journo’s headed on water. Now the big screens in the media centre are journo’s favourites and in increasing numbers they are leaving the on water experience to the camera guys.

Hearing Jimmy Spithill in the prestart screaming at Frank Camas, expletives and all in an aerial shot is much more revealing for journo’s and audiences alike than being on media boat 3, forty metres from the pin and either way that is much better than being trapped in the Fanzone shore-side.

For media, the post-race one on one interviews with skippers, such as those Sail-world has aired in this newsletter as part of its detailed event coverage becomes increasingly important.

Now to the fork in the road…

Streaming vision, free to the sailing audiences and TV networks has been delivering larger and larger audiences and ever better value for event and boat sponsors as the LandRover Extreme 40 series has shown.



A brave new experimental world opened up for the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series event, this week with AC+, delivering for US$7.99 the TV feed that it sells to TV stations.

It was notable that in sailing mad New Zealand, no TV station was prepared to pay the amount asked by the America’s Cup for the Portsmouth vision.

While some sailing aficionado’s stumped up for the Pay per view streaming feed, the total audience and exposure for both event and boat sponsors would have been just a fraction of what they would have received had they provided free streaming and free vision for the TV networks.

Especially when the increasingly online savvy sailing audience will by Round 2 in Gothenburg just how to watch the event via free streaming from one of the TV stations who has picked up event package.



The same scenario applied in most of Europe and North America and Asia.

While this model might work for Motor Sports, even Cricket, the fact is that sailing is still much more of a niche sport than mainstream and exposing large audiences to the action and excitement without the Pay per View premium seems like the best investment for all the players.

Portsmouth footfall was some 60,000 people on the only race day, wonderful for everyone and with UK sporting icon Sir Ben Ainslie figuring so prominently that may have been a great result in the UK, but that is less than 0.75% of the world’s population.

The question is Pay per View too early in sailing's new global product development, we think so but of course we are biased. What do you think?


Sea Sure 2025Hyde Sails 2024 - One DesignRooster 2025

Related Articles

The appeal of offshore
Is there still appeal? Have we made it too onerous? Why would someone take it up now? I had been pondering. Yes. Marquee events have no issue attracting entrants. Middle Sea, Transpac, Cape to Rio, Fastnet, and Hobart all spring to mind instantly, but what of the ‘lesser' races? Lots of boats in pens (slips) a lot of the time
Posted on 18 May
Banger Racing, Back Racing and No Racing
Racing on the cheap, a return to racing for young Aussies, and ILCA struggles We start with racing on the cheap at the Colander Cup, then focus on a return to racing for the Aussies at the Youth Worlds, moving on to a complete lack of racing at the ILCA Worlds, and then looking at how SailGP should be back out on the water.
Posted on 14 May
Exposure Marine Fastnet Race Kit Video Review
A set of 3 torches specifically designed for offshore racing crews It's a huge year for offshore sailing, and arguably the biggest event of the summer is the Rolex Fastnet Race. Within an hour of entries opening the Royal Ocean Racing Club had received a record 435 yacht registrations.
Posted on 14 May
Touching base with Francesca Clapcich
Francesca Clapcich on her 2028-2029 Vendee Globe campaign In late March, Italian-American sailor Francesca “Frankie” Clapcich announced that her Team Francesca Clapcich Powered by 11th Hour Racing will campaign for the 2028-2029 edition of the Vendee Globe race.
Posted on 13 May
How Seldén Carbon Masts are made
I took a look around the Seldén Mast factory with Richard Thoroughgood to find out more I took a look around the Seldén Mast factory with Richard Thoroughgood from Seldén to find out a bit more about how the carbon tow reels become the masts that we use when out sailing.
Posted on 12 May
SAY it with intent! SAY it in carbon…
You know, you might also have to SAY it in epoxy. You know, you might also have to SAY it in epoxy. Get all that, and you are certainly someone who needs to know about SAY Carbon Yachts. It's all about efficiency, acceleration, pace, and the amount of horsepower required to get there.
Posted on 8 May
Night sailing, Transat Paprec, Congressional Cup
Night sailing, encountering light airs in the Transat Paprec, Congressional Cup We bundled up as the last of the rays sunlight dipped below the Olympic Mountains and night quietly fell on Puget Sound. We'd been racing for about twelve hours in the Seattle Yacht Club's Protection Island Race (April 26), and we were getting tired.
Posted on 6 May
For the love of slightly larger, even faster boats
Bring it on. No chicken chutes allowed. Celestial, the newest Cape 31 in Oz is up and racing Thank you. You have let For the love of small, fast boats run before the breeze like a superlight planning hull under way too big a kite, with immense sheep in the paddock, and the Sailing Master grasping the flare gun in his pocket... No chicken chutes.
Posted on 4 May
Touching base with Erden Eruç
Erden Eruç on his 2026 Golden Globe Race campaign Adventures come in all sizes, scales, speeds, and price tags. My longtime friend and sometimes shipmate Erden Eruç was the first person to complete a human-powered solo circumnavigation. He's now turning his attention to the 2026 Golden Globe Race.
Posted on 1 May
The Allure of Timber
The longevity, and sheer beauty, of boats made of wood In these days of exotic materials, high modulus carbon and ultra lightweight construction, it's possible to overlook the longevity, and sheer beauty, of boats made of wood.
Posted on 29 Apr