Recognised as the single largest producer of live TV golf programming in the world, European Tour Productions will produce The Ryder Cup for the first time ever in Hi Definition format.
Sky Sports, as the host broadcaster of the Ryder Cup and the market leader in developing Hi Definition coverage in the UK, is behind this initiative. European Tour Productions, the joint-venture company of The European Tour and TWI, an IMG Media company, will produce both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and all the match coverage of the 2006 Ryder Cup between Europe and the United States.
Hosted at The K Club, Straffan, County Kildare, Ireland from 22-24 September 2006, The Ryder Cup will be produced in Hi Definition format, providing an unrivalled experience for viewers on both Sky Sports and NBC. This will be the largest outside broadcast event ever produced in HD format.
Live coverage will reach homes in 140 countries with 50 stations broadcasting, and a team of nearly 1,000 commentators, producers, technicians and engineers will be servicing the worldwide audience, potentially exceeding 1 billion.
Richard Hills, The Ryder Cup Director, said: “There are now very few places on Earth where The Ryder Cup cannot be watched in one form or another.”
Rupert Hampel, European Tour Productions’ Managing Director, said: “Given the sport’s huge popularity and the massive interest in The Ryder Cup, we are excited to be able to offer fans an even better viewing experience with the Hi-Definition format courtesy of the investment of Sky Sports, our principal broadcast partner for the event.”
Sky Sports will provide a number of additional channels on its digital interactive service including rolling highlights, a course guide, player biographies, statistics, archive and off-course material from the practice range, putting green and media centre. Programming begins on Sky Sports with previews from The K Club on Monday 18th September with NBC providing coast-to-coast coverage in America.
The BBC will produce nightly two-hour highlights and RTE will provide highlights within Ireland as soon as play finishes each day and 30 hours of commentary on both BBC Radio 5 Live and RTE Radio will allow golf fans to keep up with all the action from around the course.
Editor’s Notes:
About IMG & TWI
IMG is the world’s premier Sports, Entertainment and Media Company. IMG is a diversified global business with two major business segments: IMG Sports & Entertainment, and IMG Media. IMG employs over 2,300 people in 30 countries. Forstmann Little & Co. purchased IMG in 2004.
IMG Sports & Entertainment includes: consulting services; event ownership and management; fashion events and models representation; licensing; golf course design; client representation in golf, tennis, broadcasting, European football, rugby, cricket, motorsports, coaching, Olympic sports and action sports. In addition, IMG Academies are the world’s largest and most advanced, state-of-the-art, multi-sport training and educational facility, delivering world-class sports training experiences to over 12,000 junior, collegiate, adult and professional athletes each year.
IMG Media, which includes our content production subsidiaries TWI, Darlow Smithson Productions (DSP) and Tiger Aspect Productions (TAP), is recognized as a global leader in the delivery of traditional and new media content and services, with Internet, broadband and mobile expertise, transforming how audiences access and interact with content.
IMG Media produces and distributes over 10,000 hours of sports, documentary, drama, comedy, entertainment, popular factual and children’s content annually, over multiple platforms across 200 countries, including award-winning television and radio programming. It also represents the broadcast rights to many of the world’s premier sporting events and has the world’s biggest sports archive with more than 200,000 hours of footage.
More information about IMG is available at http://www.imgworld.com/, http://www.darlowsmithson.com/ and http://www.tigeraspect.co.uk/
For further information please contact:
Madeleine Pallas, PR Manager, Europe, IMG/TWI
Tel: +44 (0)208 233 7425/ +44 (0)7973 326 422
Email: mpallas@imgworld.com
About European Tour Productions:
The PGA European Tour, through its joint venture company European Tour Productions (ETP), has enjoyed a 19-year relationship with TWI.
ETP handles all television and new media activities of the Ryder Cup and the European Tour. The European Tour, a logistical challenge involving some 50 events in 25 countries, makes ETP the largest source of live golf programming in the world, with an output of more than 700 hours each season.
ETP produces customised weekly European Tour coverage for Sky Sports in the UK and for The Golf Channel in the US, Canada and Japan plus world feed coverage in over 140 countries around the world. ETP also produces “European Tour Weekly” 48 half-hour weekly TV magazine programmes and edits 50 highlights shows each season.
More information about ETP is available at http://www.europeantour.com/