When we interviewed him, Sarna america’s cup
was wrestling with issues surrounding
broadcast formats, such as 4x3 versus Broadcast deals
16x9. “We are sorting though exactly
what feeds will be sent to us,” he says.
“The pool feed will be a 16x9 SDTV.
HDTV would be great, and while there
is a possibility that an HDTV feed will
be available for the Tour this year, the
[America’s Cup] will remain in SDTV
format for now.”
The following list of broadcasters provided
to Via Satellite by America’s Cup TV demonstrates the keen global interest in the
outcome of the 32nd America’s Cup in
Valencia, Spain.
Broadcast deals secured
Beyond Traditional TV
In 2006, Swedish-based MPS Broadband
Ltd. was selected by Alcatel-Lucent, the
media rights holder for the 32nd America’s
Cup, as its media service provider. MPS
Broadband has created “America’s Cup
Broadband TV” and will offer yacht
racing fans a choice of live streams at
“In particular, satellites are a vital compo-
nent where live webcasts are concerned,
as MPS Broadband streams coverage of
events taking plce all over the world”
— Stevens, mpS Broadband.
300 or 850 kilobits per second.
In this instance involving live coverage of the race series, MPS Broadband
works with TWI — part of IMG Media
and the host broadcaster in Valencia
employed by ACTV. MPS Broadband
will downlink the TWI live feed — a
50-megabit-per-second i-frame MPEG-
2 stream — off the SES Sirius AB satellite at the Kaknas Tower in Stockholm. From there, MPS Broadband
has a direct link via fiber optic cable
to its data center facility where MPS
encodes the live stream into Windows
Media Video format using its Interactive Content Factory technology
licensed from Verizon Business.
America’s Cup Broadband TV is just
one of many projects which has propelled MPS Broadband to the forefront
of the fast-growing Web TV industry, says
MPS Broadband CEO Lance Stevens. The
Belgium BETV
France Canal +
Germany ARD / ZDF
Greece Supersports
Italy LA7
Netherlands NOS
New Zealand TVNZ
North America Versus
Russia NTV
Scandinavia Viasat
South Africa Supersport
Africa Multi TV Afrique
Spain TVE
Switzerland DSF / TSR / TSI
UK / Ireland BSkyB
U.S. CBS ( 2 x 52 min highlights)
deals PeNdING
Argentina ESPN Sur
Australia Fox
Brazil ESPN Brazil
Poland Polsat
Slovenia PRVA TV
Turkey Show Plus
company’s ability to access numerous
global satellite feeds is what makes it
possible. “MPS Broadband uses satellite
delivery as one of the principal methods
