Thu, 04 Oct 2007 10:30:00 UTC
It’s one year to go and the race goes online with a free new TV channel
The Volvo Ocean Race has marked the one-year countdown to the start of 2008-09 event in Alicante, Spain, with the launch of a new free online TV channel www.VolvoOceanRace.tv allowing race enthusiasts to enjoy the drama and history of the great event on their home computers.
The race’s further leap into the multimedia age is in line with the race’s commitment to using the latest in media technology to give a worldwide audience access to the race any time, anywhere, during its 39,000 nautical mile odyssey around the globe.
“It is appropriate that the launch of the online TV service on 4 October marks one-year before the start of the in-port race in Alicante,” said race CEO Glenn Bourke.
“During the 2008-09 race the channel will carry a series of live events exclusively and will of course bring viewers all the on-board drama as it happens, when it happens,” Bourke added.
The race has contracted the British company, Premium TV/Inform Group, leading online specialists in TV channels, to provide the new online service ( www.VolvoOceanRace.tv).
Premium TV/Inform Group is the market-leading supplier of digital products and services to the sport and entertainment sector. It has an extensive catalogue of sports clients and rights and also leads the market in distribution of digital sports content across multiple platforms including TV, IPTV, internet and mobile.
The launch of the new channel is another milestone achieved as race organisers piece together the complex race jigsaw which now embraces a new route through the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia and China.
“The pieces are slotting smoothly into place,” said Bourke. “We have a start and we recently announced a finish in St Petersburg, the first ever visit to Russia.” The in-port race will be held on 4 October while the fleet will head off to Cape Town on the first offshore leg a week later.
“And as for the pieces in between, Cape Town, Kochi, Singapore, Qingdao, Rio de Janeiro, Boston, Galway, Goteborg and Stockholm are all nearly in place,” Bourke added.
The new channel will be broadcasting in widescreen and over the coming months will be progressively releasing historical archive stretching back to the first Whitbread Around the World Yacht Race in 1973.
Online viewers will not only be able follow their sailing heroes, including Paul Cayard, Grant Dalton and Sir Peter Blake, as they battled their way across the oceans but will also have access to an extensive back catalogue of features exclusive to the site.
The riveting fly-on-the-wall documentary series on the last race, “Inside the Volvo Ocean Race”, which was recently shown on both Channel 4 and More 4 in the UK, is available from launch on the TV channel (go to www.volvooceanrace.tv, click Race Years, click Documentaries and enjoy).
You can relive all the drama of the race in the six-part series, from the disastrous first leg when two boats dropped out and another was seriously damaged to the tragedy across the Atlantic when a crewman drowned and a boat sank.
The race Head of Technology and New Media, Andrew Ferguson, has been overseeing the launch of the online channel and is confident that viewers will embrace the new race medium.
“It puts viewers in control, allowing them to watch what they want, when they want. It will be an exciting tool when the race starts in a year’s time,” he said.
The new TV channel follows the ground-breaking decision earlier this year to introduce high definition television (HDTV) feeds as part of an upgraded broadcast coverage for the 2008-09 race. HDTV feeds will mean enhanced picture quality and an opportunity to engage world-wide broadcasters looking to fill their schedules with HDTV material. Each Open 70 boat will carry seven HD-V cameras on board – five fixed, two hand-held - which will provide four times the quality of the last race. The cameras are bespoke products allowing pan tilt and zoom in hermetically sealed units and weigh only about 1.5kg, compared with the 2007 America’s Cup on-board cameras in a non-HD format which weighed 15kg and were about five times the size.
The race also secured another addition to its new media tools this week when it wrapped up an agreement with The NewsMarket to distribute video footage of the 2008-09 race. More than 13,000 media outlets in 193 countries across the globe use The NewsMarket to find video content for news stories.
Six boats from the US, Russia, Spain and Sweden have now confirmed for the 2008-09 event which will be the 10th running of this ocean marathon. Stopping over in at least 11 ports and taking nine months to complete, the Volvo Ocean Race is the world’s premier yacht race for professional racing crews.