The NBC Sports Group will present live coverage of the 34th America’s Cup on both NBC and the NBC Sports Network beginning on Sept. 7, 2013 from the Cup’s host city of San Francisco.
The first two days of racing will be broadcast over the air across the United States on Sept. 7-8 on NBC, with the remaining races airing on NBC Sports Network. With the event taking place in San Francisco, the NBC Sports Group’s regional sports network Comcast SportsNet California will provide the additional local coverage that surrounds the America’s Cup finals. NBC Sports Group also acquired the rights to the 2013 Louis Vuitton Cup, the America’s Cup Challenger Series, which determines the challenger for the America’s Cup Finals.
“Viewers are in for a treat as the defense of the Cup by Team USA/Oracle Racing takes place in the U.S. for the first time in 18 years,” said Jon Miller, president of programming at the NBC Sports Group.
To change the way people understand the sport of sailing, the 34th America’s Cup event organizers have made a significant investment in the production of next-generation broadcast images, anchored by onboard agile HD cameras and 14 microphones on each America’s Cup boat.
The backbone of this new visual experience is also a breakthrough in sports broadcasting – augmented reality from a helicopter called LiveLine. Created by the same Emmy award-winning team that developed the yellow first-down line widely used in the broadcast of NFL football, the graphics system enables embedded technical aids for viewers, such as ahead-behind lines so audiences can clearly see who is leading the race.
