Photos: L Oskar Kihlborg R Robin Britton

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Tue, 28 Nov 2006 14:00:00 UTC

The exploits of the crews in the 2005-06 race were watched by a cumulative global television audience of 1.8 billion according to figures released by the Volvo Ocean Race’s independent researchers.

And the eventual audience figure will break through the 2-billion mark with the screening of the end-of-race documentaries, which air globally over the coming months.

The 2005-06 race figure represents a 121 per cent increase on the 811 million achieved in 2001-02 event. It puts the Volvo Ocean Race in the top echelon of global sports coverage with news output and the weekly programmes broadcast in over 190 territories. The findings, the result of an independent tracking and evaluation programme undertaken by London-based research agency Connexus Precision, cover the period from October 1, 2005 to July 31, 2006. The race started in Vigo, Spain on November 5, 2005 and finished in Goteborg in June, 2006.

The cornerstone of the race coverage was the 30-minute weekly programmes. These were complimented by features and daily news feeds which were distributed from the start of the race in Galicia, Spain in November 2005.

Countries where the half hour programmes were seen range from North America to China and Japan to Finland and include such diverse territories as South Africa, Australia, Canada, Britain, Argentina, Holland, Brazil, Russia, Ireland, India and Paraguay.

The race exposure has also been boosted by live coverage of the in-port races – an initiative for the 2005-06 race designed to bring the action closer to the general public. The in-port races in Spain in November 2005 was telecast live on Spanish national broadcaster TVE while Brazilian audiences were able to tune in to the in-port race in Rio De Janeiro in March via TV Globo. TVE also carried live coverage of the Rio race.

Speed record

Glenn Bourke, CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race, attributes the hike in audience figures to a number of innovations of the 2005-06 race, not least of which was the Volvo Open 70 – an all-new 70-foot race boat – which broke the 24-hour monohull speed record. ABN AMRO TWO – one of two entries from the Dutch bank – covered a staggering 563 nautical miles in 24 hours.

“The Volvo Open 70 does a lot of the talking for us,’ Bourke said. ‘We are all in awe of its breathtaking speed. Throw in the fact that you have 10 guys on board attempting to tame this beast in hostile weather conditions and on a race track of over 31,250 nautical miles and you have all the ingredients for cutting edge drama.

Programmes were independently produced by Sunset + Vine and distributed by satellite and tape feed each week from purpose-built studio and editing facilities at race headquarters in Whiteley, Hampshire.

“Sunset + Vine brought an objective eye and their renowned expertise to the task of production. We had a very clear objective. Our yardstick was compelling viewing. We wanted to get under the skin of the race and reveal every aspect of the physical and mental strains which these sailors endure – warts and all. Our overriding objective was to engage non-specialist sailing audiences in the crew members’ exploits.

“In terms of editorial tone, we did not hold back. We have not been afraid to tell it like it is. It has been access all areas. We have allowed our camera crews into places most other global sports deem to be off limits. The proof is in the watching and in the feedback we have had from broadcasters and viewers. They all agree our broadcast coverage – weekly programmes and news outputs – was compelling viewing. And with the documentaries, I believe the best is yet to come,” Bourke added.

The race was not short of drama and incident. Sadly, the Dutchman Hans Horrevoets lost his life on the seventh leg of the race – the 3,200 nautical mile journey from New York to Portsmouth. The crew of Horrevoets’s ABN AMRO TWO then set about the successful rescue of the 10-man crew of the stricken Spanish entry movistar in the same, storm-ravaged transatlantic waters. The footage of that rescue captivated audiences world wide.

Besides the footage which is delivered from the boats by satellite, three full time camera crews travelled between the ports, while helicopters and chase boats were deployed to film the starts, finishes and in-port races. Additionally a member of the in-house camera crew or national broadcaster was accommodated on-board for the in-port race.

Bourke said: “We put measures in place to ensure we captured every second of the action – innovations like the 10 cameras on board and the state-of-the-art satellite communications equipment to ensure timely delivery to our editing team at race headquarters.”

At the coalface

The crews were put through intensive media training sessions prior to the start of the race. Bourke explains: “We all recognise and appreciate that these guys have a day job to do – race the boat – but they are also aware that it is imperative that we tell their story through their eyes. After all, they are the guys out there at the coalface.

“Even though at times the crew members spend weeks on end sometimes 3,500 nautical miles from landfall, there is no hiding place. The fact is, they were the major contributors to the human drama with the images they delivered direct from the boats at sea. They appreciated what we were setting out to achieve and bought into it fully. The material which was transmitted from the boats during their voyage round the globe, some of which they edited from the on-board media station, with the boat rocking and rolling in 60 knots and 12-metre seas, was gripping stuff. It was clear they enjoyed playing film makers – we have unearthed some budding Spielbergs!’

Besides the vast television audience figures, the media exposure for the 2005-06 race was bolstered further by over 18,000 newspaper and magazine articles globally. More than 2,000 accredited media visited race villages around the world and race imagery via Reuters was supplied to 10,000 picture desks.

The official race web site recorded 100 million page views from 3.5 million unique users. Over 3,800 features delivered over 230 hours of live radio/audio content, produced to an estimated one billion radio listeners.

In a ground-breaking tie-up with Ericsson, race aficionados were also able to follow the progress of the fleet on their mobile handsets on the Volvo Ocean Race mobile channel. The channel recorded 3.9m mobile downloads during the course of the event.

The media reach of the race will grow further with the race track for the 2008-09 race being expanded to take in new territories including Asia, India and the Middle East.

Although the final route for 2008-09 has yet to be determined, the race will start in the autumn of 2008 in the Spanish port of Alicante.

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