A late deal has been secured in the past 24 hours which will see the AIT International Grand Prix athletics meeting broadcast live in a three hour show on IrishTV on Wednesday night.
The programme will be free to air on Sky Channel 191, eir eVision 191, Freesat 400 and online at IrishTV.ie. It has a potential audience through those channels of some 300,000 according to IrishTV.
400m world indoor champion Pavel Maslak from the Czech Republic and Pole Vault world champion Shawn Barber of Canada will feature as part of the event which is being held for the second year at the Athlone Institute of Technology’s indoor athletics arena.
“This is a world class meeting and we are delighted to be broadcasting it live,” said IRISH TV Head of Sport Brian Hurley speaking last night to Sport for Business.
“This kind of partnership shows how broadcasters, sponsors and sporting events can benefit each other by working together.”
“We are always looking for good live content and we expect a massive audience for this world class event not just in Ireland but across the globe.”
“The key to broadcasting an event like this live is that each party is involved in the concept, activation, presentation and overall live broadcast itself.”
“There are so many different ways that sport event organisers, sponsors and broadcasters can partner and we are always exploring new concepts, ideas and partnerships that benefit all involved.”
It is understood that neither AIT nor Athletics Ireland will be paying towards the cost of the broadcast and that this will be met instead through specific advertising and the enhanced profile such an event brings to the channel.
Irish TV broadcast the Sport for Business Sporting Breakfast from Merrion Square last week and that will be broadcast again on Thursday night at 7pm on the same suite of satellite and online channels.
The Grand Prix is an event that is unlikely to have picked up traditional coverage given its clash with the General Election coverage and the UEFA Champions’ League but this deal proves that the nature of TV broadcasting is changing.
The biggest events still command ever higher rights payments as they gather audiences like nothing else at a singular time.
For smaller scale events though the additional boost to sponsorship, prestige and the benefit of creating a permanent record is well worth investigating and this, together withy the coverage of the FAI Junior Cup on the same channel over the coming weeks is a real shot ion the arm to smaller sports looking to make a bigger impact.
