Live agony for 1.5 million viewers

By ALAN PERROTT and LOUISA CLEAVE

Team New Zealand blew it in the final minutes of their second race against Alinghi ... in front of nearly 1.5 million television viewers.

Race coverage on TV One peaked with an average viewership of 1,400,000 people aged over 5 watching in the final minutes of the race. It was the channel's biggest audience for a sporting event since the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

The average audience between 4pm and 6.30pm was 1.16 million people, according to ACNielsen figures.

But it has not been smooth sailing for television viewers.

TVNZ has been fielding email, phone and fax complaints about the placement of ads during coverage of the racing, including a commercial break inserted when the Black Boat's boom broke on Saturday.

Glen Sowry, a spokesman for the state broadcaster, said the feedback had prompted a review of how TVNZ could minimise the advertising impact on viewers while honouring its commitments to advertisers.

TVNZ was looking at dropping the amount of in-house advertising such as channel promotions, and would review commercial break decision-making in the control room.

TV One normally broadcasts 12 minutes of ads an hour, but reduced the ratio slightly during America's Cup coverage.

Mr Sowry said the first day of racing attracted about 685,000 viewers.

Unofficially, the figure was much higher after taking into account the people watching large-screen TV coverage in bars and other venues.

The early finish to the event posed some problems, Mr Sowry said, but having experienced delays and abandoned races during the Louis Vuitton series, TVNZ ensured plenty of stock footage was available to plug the gaps.

The America's Cup racing is being covered with the intensity of an All Blacks test.

Almost everything race fans will see and hear on television - every word, every grunt and every grimace - is dictated by executive producer Stephen Coates, who controls a multimillion-dollar array of equipment.

At his disposal are about 130 staff (ranging from television presenters to boat skippers), six on-shore cameras, two camera-helicopters, seven boats of varying sizes fitted with cameras, one support boat, on-shore production suites, on-shore studio and the Virtual Spectator computer graphics team.

Each yacht is fitted with five cameras. Three sailors on each boat, chosen by the syndicates and not including the skippers, are fitted with microphones to pick up the on-board chatter.

In some ways there is even more detailed coverage than for a rugby international.

"Everything is covered - from the boats leaving the Viaduct to the return," Mr Coates said. "We don't do the All Blacks leaving the hotel."

TVNZ has two roles during the America's Cup: that of host broadcaster providing pictures and sound to international television stations and the domestic feed shown on TV One.

Bringing the race to life for everyone - no matter their level of yachting knowledge - was a huge challenge said Mr Coates.

"It's a bit like covering a Formula One race, except that it runs for six months," he said.

TV One cover each finals race from 9am to 6pm. However, preparations each race day start at 5am and staff could be working as late as 9pm to 10pm if there is a delay to the start.

The TVNZ head of production and sport, Denis Harvey, said almost 17 days of television time would have been screened by the time the six-month regatta wrapped up.

The scale of the operation could be compared with an Olympic Games. There was one major difference, though: because the action took place on the water none of the information could be broadcast along secure cables.

Mr Harvey would not say how much the coverage cost - but noted that the nature of the event meant contracting technical staff from Europe and the United States and leasing specialist equipment such as the helicopter-mounted cameras.

It is the fourth America's Cup Mr Harvey has covered. The competition this time, he said, was the most intense.

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

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