TVNZ attains more Challenger series coverage

By HELEN TUNNAH

America's Cup viewers will not see full coverage of the challenger series until the semifinals, but Television New Zealand has negotiated a deal to provide extra coverage over the coming weeks.

Host broadcaster TransWorld International of the United States will continue to feature just one match a day during the second round robin of the challenger series and next month's quarter-finals, with full live coverage not kicking off until the semifinals in December.

Challenger of Record Management (Corm) spokesman Dyer Jones said TVNZ was able to supplement the coverage because it had bought pictures being supplied to Scandinavia of Victory Challenge's races.

The decision to feature one race a day led to criticism during the first round robin, particularly as some of the races screened were not the key matchups of the day. On one day viewers were left watching commentators filling in time on a course where racing had been delayed, while Prada and OneWorld were locked in a dramatic tussle on the other course.

TVNZ's ratings for the first races of the Louis Vuitton Cup were good, with up to 250,000 viewers watching one Saturday afternoon of racing. Midweek racing also rated well, and was better than some shows screened in the early afternoon before the regatta started.

For the second round, Corm has scheduled the feature races to be broadcast over the first four days, and over the final races the focus will be on selecting key races. Eight of the nine teams will progress to the quarter-finals, with the bottom-placed team after the two round robins knocked out of the contest.

Mr Jones said Scandinavian cable broadcaster Viasat had an agreement with TransWorld to obtain coverage of all the Swedish syndicate's races, and TVNZ had negotiated to screen pictures from those races. That would extend through to the quarter-finals.

"Any broadcaster could do what Viasat is doing, and that is adding to the host broadcast coverage their own unilateral coverage. They are available here because TVNZ has purchased some of them.

"We go live with two world feeds in the semifinals."

TVNZ would then have the choice to take one or other race, or switch between them.

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

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