Peachy Ahoy: The America's Cup Revolution: Worldwide Interest
Just as the America’s Cup has evolved and grown on the water, so has its global attraction, interest levels and international media coverage as the competition continues to break new ground.
© Ricardo Pinto
The roots of the America’s Cup can be traced to 1851 and the Isle of Wight in the UK’s Solent, and then across the Atlantic to New York and the numerous events that were held in US waters as the USA dominated the sport until 1983.
Now, America’s Cup racing has been seen live in Japan for the very first time, at the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series Fukuoka event in November 2016, and the sport has just left its mark on the US mainland in a seriously credible manner after nearly 400,000 people turned out to watch the racing action in New York and, for the very first time on fresh water, in Chicago’s Lake Michigan.
However, the sport’s international reach does not stop there. In 2014 Bermuda was announced as the home of the 35th running of the America’s Cup, taking place in 2017, and the island has already staged a round of the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series in 2015.
© Ainhoa Sánchez
It is not only geography in which the America’s Cup is expanding, it is also now generating media coverage worldwide, with every event attracting journalists, broadcasters, bloggers, photographers, radio stations and podcasters from around the world.
Twenty-seven different broadcasters will take coverage of the 2017 events to more than 190 countries around the globe, taking the spectacle from Bermuda’s Great Sound to everywhere from the major nations to more obscure territories such as Djibouti and as far afield as Australia, more than 10,500 miles away from the 35thAmerica’s Cup venue.
NBC and NBCSN, who will once again broadcast coverage in the USA, as they did for the last America’s Cup, in which ORACLE TEAM USA staged one of the greatest comebacks in sport to retain the trophy for the United States in 2013.
The television coverage was widely acclaimed and saw the development of the Emmy Award-winning on screen graphics package, AC LiveLine, which enhanced the viewing experience by making the sport more engaging and more easily understood, especially for new fans.
“We are excited to once again showcase the best sailing in the world to a national audience,” said Jon Miller, President, Programming, NBC and NBCSN.
“The 2013 America’s Cup served as the setting for one of the greatest comebacks in recent sports history, and we will again leverage the full collection of broadcast, cable and online platforms of the NBC Sports Group to present the race for the oldest trophy in international sports.”
Greater coverage and reach means millions of people can watch, read about, listen to and interact with the sport every single day and as the America’s Cup itself ,and the teams which compete in it, all embrace social media, fans can go right into the heart of the action whenever they want, wherever they are.
