TVNW Media Group has been contracted to host-broadcast next month’s International Triathlon Union Long Distance Triathlon World Championships in S‰ter, Sweden.
The event is the third world championship to be host-broadcast by the North Vancouver-based production company in the past eight months. In November 2003, TVNW host-broadcasted the World Weightlifting Championships from downtown Vancouver’s Convention Centre. Last month, it host-broadcasted the ITU Triathlon World Championships (Olympic Distance) in Madeira, Portugal.
TVNW’s appointment as host-broadcaster of the Long Distance triathlon event falls in the same week as the release of viewing figures from the UK and Spain showing that interest in triathlon is increasing in the lead-up to this summer’s Olympic Games in Athens, where the sport will make only its second appearance, after a highly successful debut in Sydney in 2000.
The first round of the 2004 Triathlon World Cup series in Ishigaki, Japan recorded the highest sports audience of the week (April 25 – May 2) for UK commercial broadcaster Channel 5, with 451,000 viewers watching the TVNW-produced programme in a post-midnight slot. The programme outranked other Channel 5 sports broadcasts such as NHL ice hockey playoffs, the NASCAR Busch series, Major League Baseball, PGA golf, and UK, Dutch and Argentinean soccer.
Audiences for the 2004 Triathlon World Cup on Channel 5 are up by an average of 80,000 viewers per show, according to influential industry newsletter TV Sports Markets and British Audience Research Board figures.
Channel 5 head of sport Robert Charles said that ‘triathlon is a surprisingly popular programme. It brings an uplift in audiences in our late night slot.’ He added that nearly half a million viewers for triathlon at midnight is ‘astonishing. It’s a really good audience for that slot.’
Triathlon also recorded one of the highest audiences for sports programmes in Spain in the month of April. The European Triathlon Championships, shown on public service broadcaster TVE’s La2, was the 20th most watched sports event for the month, and the only ‘minor’ sport in the chart, which was dominated by European and domestic soccer, motorsport, basketball and Davis Cup tennis.
TVNW Media Group is a leading sports television production company operating in the Pacific Northwest.
Since its inception in 2002, it has produced coverage of the ITU’s Triathlon World Cup series, FIS World Cup skiing, the 2003 FIS Snowboard World Championships, the 2003 World Weightlifting Championships, the 2002 Mountain Bike World Cup in Scotland and the Canadian Arena Cross Championships.
This year, TVNW Media Group became the in-house television arm of the International Triathlon Union, and will produce its 16-leg Triathlon World Cup series for worldwide broadcast.
TVNW will also host-broadcast an expanded package of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC soccer games in 2004 for Rogers SportsNet, making the Whitecaps the only A-League and W-League teams to have their own dedicated television coverage.
This summer, TVNW will host-broadcast the 2004 National Wakeboard Championships in Vancouver’s False Creek, and will produce highlights of the Harry Jerome International Track and Field Classic and ‘Miracle Mile’ memorial in Burnaby, BC, for Canadian national broadcaster CBC.
For further information, contact:
Martin Perry, Managing Director, TVNW Media Group
Tel: + 1 604 904 7579 Cell: + 1 604 889 0150
Email: martin@tvnwmediagroup.com
Catherine Davies, Communications Manager, TVNW Media Group
Cell: + 1 604 318 4848
Email: catherine@tvnwmediagroup.com
Christine Brown, Producer, ITU Tri TV / TVNW Media Group
Email: christine@tvnwmediagroup.com