Advanced Television

Henley Royal Regatta extends BT Sport broadcast deal

July 5, 2019

The Stewards of Henley Royal Regatta have announced a renewed agreement with BT Sport which will see live and exclusive television coverage of the Regatta continue in the UK for 2019 and 2020, to complement the ongoing live streaming of the event around the world on YouTube.

This agreement, which extends the partnership to a total of five years, highlights the success of the live broadcast strategy adopted by the Regatta in 2015. It will see BT Sport showing around eight hours of live coverage per day over the last three days of the event. In 2019, Mark Durden-Smith who has presented Regatta coverage on BT Sport since 2016, will be joined by Craig Doyle.

Since embarking on the strategy in 2015 of broadcasting the Regatta live, every race of the event has also been shown on YouTube. In that time rowers and fans of the famous event from around the world have watched over 50 million minutes of coverage online.

Sunset+Vine will continue as production partner to the Regatta and to BT Sport. The UK independent TV sports production and media company has been the Regatta’s production partner since the first YouTube broadcast in 2015.

Steve Redgrave, Chairman of the Regatta’s Committee of Management said: “We are delighted to confirm our continued relationship with our valued partners BT Sport and Sunset+Vine, and we look forward to continuing to innovate and provide our audience with world class coverage of Henley Royal Regatta. The first five years of our broadcast project has been a game changer for the Regatta and for rowing. We have already broadcast more than twelve hundred races with every single one live on YouTube and available on-demand post-event.”

Simon Green, Head at BT Sport said: “Henley Royal Regatta is a fixture of the English summer and also a landmark on the international rowing calendar.  BT Sport viewers have the opportunity to enjoy world class rowing from junior to collegiate to national squad level in an iconic setting for the next two years.”

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