Volvo Ocean Race Announces Broadcast Partners

The Volvo Ocean Race and its global distribution agency Sunset+Vine, a TV sports producer and distributor, which is part of the Tinopolis Group, have announced the initial list of broadcast partners.

The announcement comes in advance of the race start on 22nd October, with an emphasis on countries featuring the boats, stopovers and sailors in the race and a shift towards digital coverage.

The introduction of the Crew Communicator, a device will allow the sailors to supply their own digital updates, including photos and short videos, direct from the oceans, will have an impact on what fans can see, following a rule change from the race which had previously banned Internet access to the teams in order to rule out any potential outside assistance from shore.

Twitter, Facebook, Apple and Samsung will bring race content to digital platforms, while the UK (Sky Sports), Spain (TVE/Teledeporte), Portugal (RTP), Brasil (TV Brasil), France (Sport+), South Africa (SuperSport), Australia (Fox Sports), New Zealand (Sky NZ), and Holland (NOS) all feature national channels or premier sports broadcasters covering the race programming throughout the nine months starting this month with the Volvo Ocean Race’s one-hour race preview special.

On the digital side, Sunset+Vine has delivered partnerships for the race with online and mobile platforms such as Sina.com (China), Twitter (Global), Tencent (China), Aftonbladet Sport (Sweden), Samsung (Asia) and OutsideTV.com (USA) to bring the race’s content to smartphones, desktops and tablets.

For this 13th edition of the race, all broadcast partners will feature more race content on their online digital platforms and via social media promotions and coverage than ever before, according to organisers. 

The TV programming will consist of a one-hour race preview, nine 30-minute leg summary shows and a one-hour race review in August 2018 for seven hours of TV coverage.

Leon Sefton, head of television, Volvo Ocean Race said: “With our new crew communicator, we will have video footage going right from the boats 3,000 miles at sea into the hands of sports and sailing fans in an instant.

“Enhancing longer-form television content, we want fans to catch glimpses of our race and our incredible sailing footage on their social feeds via popular sports websites and on sports news shows in their home markets throughout the nine-months of this competition.”

Andrew Piller, commercial director, at Sunset+Vine, added: “Volvo has taken an exciting new digital-first approach to this race and Sunset+Vine is delighted to have played a key role in leveraging across not just traditional television networks but also the digital and social channels.

“There are more than 100 broadcasters taking the monthly programming output yet we are equally proud of the 70-plus digital channels broadcasting live including TV network .coms, international newspapers, sailing trade and OTT channels.”

“We’re pleased to see new partners on the digital side with tremendous reach and the potential for new fans to experience what the Volvo Ocean Race is all about,” said Jordi Neves, chief digital officer at the Volvo Ocean Race. “The new emphasis on digital content is a decision we made during the last cycle to provide raw and unfiltered content straight from the boats – to let the public and sports fans see what it’s like to sail around the world in some of the toughest possible conditions over 45,000 nautical miles.”