Did you know that the Kiwis are already out of the America's Cup? We're talking commentary here, because the 35th America's Cup - which starts in Bermuda on Saturday morning - will be brought to you by an overseas TV commentary team. Here's our guide to the TV, radio and NZME blog coverage.
• Pay channel SKY have the exclusive TV rights for the first time meaning you can expect a typically enthusiastic American-style commentary from the world feed. It remains to be seen if there is a distracting slant towards Oracle Team USA, the defenders and regatta overlords. But as some will point out, past free-to-air commentaries have contained some bias towards Team New Zealand. Coverage this time is via NBC Sports, the America's Cup Event Authority broadcasting partner.
• The race callers are Alastair Eykyn, the play-by-play commentator, and Ken Read, the expert analyst. Eykyn is a Brit who works for the BBC and BT Sport, with rugby and tennis his specialties. Sailing aficionados know little about him while Read is highly respected. He is a top sailor who helmed Dennis Conner's America's Cup boats in 2000 and 2003, skippered Ocean Race campaigns, and is a sailmaker/businessman. Read was a TV analyst for the last America's Cup in San Francisco.
• Sky TV claims customer surveys reveal New Zealand commentators are less important to viewers than "clear dictation and a good knowledge and enthusiasm for the sport".
• What about the free stuff? There will be no challenger races on Prime. Sky has yet to decide if some America's Cup match racing will get delayed free-to-air coverage. If TNZ fail to get to the final showdown few Kiwis will care whether the match racing gets the free-to-air treatment or not.
• Radio Sport has the exclusive audio rights. All races will be called live by commentary icon Peter Montgomery and seven time America's Cup sailor Tony Rae. NZME/NZ Herald will carry live blogs of all the races, with former TNZ member Professor Mark Orams the key analyst alongside the Herald's yachting writer and chief sports journalist Dana Johannsen, who is in Bermuda. TV journalist Martin Tasker and ex-TNZ sailor Peter Lester will add to the blogs which will track all races with a special emphasis on Team New Zealand.
• Overseeing the worldwide coverage is Kiwi executive producer Denis Harvey, whose amazing CV includes Olympic Games, the Rugby World Cup and America's Cup. Harvey started on Kiwi TV classics such as Dig This, and Kaleidoscope, and is a former TVNZ head of production and sport. Billionaire Oracle boss Larry Ellison installed Harvey a year before the 2013 America's Cup in San Francisco after a brutal management cull. The coverage subsequently won an Emmy for its graphics, known as AC LiveLine. Significantly, Harvey says he tried to ensure coverage was "as bipartisan as possible".
• Sky TV "reached out" to Team New Zealand, offering them the chance to provide an alternative commentary. The obvious candidates are the old firm of Tasker and Lester, who are in Bermuda and are providing NZME/NZ Herald with the Toyota-sponsored dockside reports. But there doesn't appear to be any progress on the Sky offer, and Lester was unaware of it. This is unusual, a rights-holder offering a commentary slot to one of the event competitors. But the America's Cup is no ordinary sporting contest, with the defender also running the regatta. It is understood BMW's backing of Oracle prevents rival carmaker Toyota - a TNZ sponsor - from being associated with the Sky coverage.
• Post-racing analysis will apparently be limited to whatever the world feed commentators can sneak in to the satellite schedule, should the races finish early. In other words, you will have to wait until 8.30 at night to get the New Zealand TV influence when extensive reviews kick in (see below).
• Sky's New Zealand-based analysis will be crammed into a show hosted by Bernadine Oliver-Kirby every race night at 8.30 (on Sport 4, Channel 54). The experts include Orams, while other panelists are world ranked match racer Chris Steele, highly successful Olympic head coach and former Team New Zealand weather strategist Grant Beck, national youth sailor representative Micah Wilkinson, and Rio Olympic silver medallists Molly Meech and Alex Maloney. Sky says there are "more names to come" including former TNZ sailors.
