Global TV audience for Isle of Man TT could double in 2012
New television deals are expected to see twice the number of people watch the Isle of Man TT on TV this year compared with 2011.
The Department of Economic Development said deals negotiated by North One TV are likely to double the 16,000,000 viewers that watched the last year’s event worldwide.
New deals have been confirmed to take a minimum of the 11 one-hour TT-dedicated and Isle of Man-themed international programmes this year to broadcasters in the Middle East and North Africa, South America, pan-Asia, Scandinavia, France, Poland and the Czech Republic.
Several other deals are close to being signed with major broadcasters in territories where TT-dedicated programmes will be shown for the first time. These territories will join the established pool of TV broadcasters worldwide carrying the international TT programmes which includes Australia, Taiwan, Germany, Spain, the USA and Canada.
UK audiences can enjoy 14 one-hour programmes, including 11 TT review programmes, on ITV4, and a Welsh language version on S4C, which started on Monday.
The on air team will again be led by Craig Doyle and includes Steve Parrish, James Whitham and Steve Plater.
In addition to the TT races review programmes a number of stations are also planning features during the TT. The BBC Coast programme will again be visiting the Isle of Man, an Al Jazeera documentary team is creating a one hour film of the event, ITV4’s The Motorbike Show are filming a show on the return of Norton and a crew from HBO in the USA are in the Island to do a major news and lifestyle feature.
BBC1 will also be covering the Olympic Torch relay taking place on Saturday in the Isle of Man. This will be screened on Wednesday, June 6, at 7pm as part of the national coverage.
New production improvements from North One TV include on-board telemetry from the bikes this year as well as a higher spec hi-motion camera that will run at 1000 frames per second, an increase from the 600 frames last year. The company has also researched more new camera angles and positions.
Department of Economic Development Chief Executive Colin Kniveton said:
“This is great news for the event as not only does it help increase the commercial revenue that we can generate, it also boosts the profile of the Isle of Man’s commercial interests.”
“We have already seen more international visitors to the Isle of Man on the back of the increased profile and we are confident that this trend will continue as a result of the extended coverage.”