Volvo Ocean Race- Initial TV cover to 57 broadcasters in 50 countries

by Volvo Ocean Race Media on 8 Sep 2011
The Volvo Ocean Race and IMG Media – host broadcaster and global media distributor for the event – have announced the first group of broadcast partners for the 2011-12 edition of the Volvo Ocean Race with 57 broadcasters covering over 50 countries.

The list includes several broadcasters in host ports such as Television New Zealand (TVNZ), SuperSport (South Africa), TG4 (Ireland), Fox Sports Net (United States), Abu Dhabi Media (UAE) and three broadcast partners in Brazil: Bandsports, ESPN do Brasil and GloboSat. Teledeporte (TDP), owned by Spanish national broadcaster TVE, will provide extensive coverage throughout the race including live national coverage of the race start and opening In-Port Race in Alicante, Spain.

Other broadcast partners include Channel Ten (Australia), ORF (Austria), Rogers Sports Net (Canada), Hi Fidelity (Canada), Guangdong TV (China), Nova Sport (Czech Republic), Sky Pacific (Fiji/Pacific Islands), NOVA Sport (Greece/Cyprus), Neo Sports (India), Indovision (Indonesia), Sports Channel (Israel), Sky Italia (Italy), Fox Sports Latin America (Latin America excluding Brazil), Astro Super Sport (Malaysia), OSN (pan-Middle East), TV4 (Poland), Digi Sport (Romania/Hungary), StarHub (Singapore), SportKlub TV (Southeastern Europe), TV3 (Spain/Catalan) and Sky Sports (United Kingdom).

Among the current list of broadcasters, roughly 75 percent of them have agreed to take the live production of the In-Port Races and Leg Starts in the upcoming race, boosting the amount of Volvo Ocean Race programming from previous races.

'We’re pleased to see the high level of television interest in the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12 and announce our first series of broadcaster deals,' said Adam Binns, Director of Television. 'The Volvo Ocean Race makes for compelling viewing with its drama and personalities, people living life at the extreme for nine months, an experience that few sports can match.'

Adam Kelly, Senior Vice President and Marketing Director, IMG Media said: 'We have seen really strong interest from broadcasters throughout the world and are confident of delivering a record breaking audience for this edition of the Volvo Ocean Race.'

In 2011-12, the Volvo Ocean Race programming will feature nine, one-hour documentaries from each of the off-shore legs along with 13 half-hour shows that will package the highlights of the leg starts and In-Port Races. The content list also features a preview show, mid-race update and holiday special. In addition to world feed programming, many broadcasters are also adding substantial domestic coverage within their territories.

The Volvo Ocean Race television programming will also see a return to live HD coverage of the race: all nine Leg Starts will be available to broadcasters with 60 minutes of live HD coverage, while each of the 10 In-Port Races will feature in a 90-minute live show on select weekends every month from October through to July.

'For this 11th edition of the race, we believe we have a great mix of programming from live, to documentaries, to highlights capturing the local flavour of the stopovers and the epic nature of the event,' said Binns. 'Complemented by our video diaries, news clips and webcasts the television programming will feature all the unique aspects of this race that make it such an unmissable event: heroes, cutting-edge technology, speed and human emotion. After a race of 39,000 miles it may all come down to a matter of inches in the Galway In-Port Race on July 7, 2012. Our job is the bring that drama to a global audience of millions.'

The opening In-Port Race in Alicante, Spain kicks off at 1400 local time (1200 GMT/UTC) on Saturday, October 29 with the Start of Leg 1 to Cape Town scheduled for 1400 local time (1300 GMT/UTC) on Saturday, November 5 the following week. Thereafter the In-Port Race will be the day preceding the Leg Start. Each month will feature one leg documentary and one In-Port Race/Start highlight show except next June, which will feature events in both Lisbon, Portugal and Lorient, France.

The Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12 is being produced and distributed globally in partnership with IMG Media, a unit of IMG Worldwide, the global sports, fashion and media company. Full air times and dates will be posted this autumn at www.volvooceanrace.com/fanzone.


Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12 Programming Breakdown
13 Half-Hour Highlight Shows (Leg Starts/In-Port Race, Preview and Updates)
10 Live In-Port Races (90 minutes)
9 Live Leg Starts (60 minutes)
9 1-hour Leg Documentary Shows
1 90-minute Official Film
1 History of the Volvo Ocean Race Documentary
1 Golden Moments of the Race (30 minutes)

IMG Media is the world’s largest independent distributor of sports programming, distributing over 20,000 hours of content to major global broadcasters annually. This content originates from more than 200 clients and events including AELTC (Wimbledon), Tennis Australia (The Australian Open), TPL (ATP Masters 1000s), The R&A (The Open Championship), International Rugby Board (Rugby World Cup), Dorna (Moto GP), National Football League (NFL) and International Volleyball Federation (FIVB). IMG Media operates from over 30 offices worldwide and has daily exchanges with over 4,000 key media contacts. IMG Media distributes across all forms of media including TV, Audio, Fixed Media, Inflight and Closed Circuit, Broadband and Mobile. IMG Media also maintains the world’s largest sports archive with more than 250,000 hours of footage.

Volvo Ocean Race
• The next Volvo Ocean Race will start in the Spanish port of Alicante on October 29, 2011 and finish in Galway, Ireland during the summer of 2012.
• The course will include stopovers in Cape Town (South Africa), Abu Dhabi (UAE), Sanya (China), Auckland (New Zealand), Itajaí (Brazil), Miami (USA), Lisbon (Portugal) and Lorient (France).
• The first 31,250 nautical-mile race first took place exactly 38 years ago (as the Whitbread Round the World Race 1973-74), testing the crews against some of the most ferocious elements that man can encounter.
• The 2011-12 race will be the 11th edition of the event.