London, UK: The Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) has renewed its broadcast deal with SPOTV, South Korea’s #1 linear and digital sports service to Southeast Asia.
Building on two years of partnership since the inaugural Collins Cup in 2021 and the first PTO Tour in 2022, the deal for 2023 includes live coverage of all PTO Tour races as well as countdown preview programmes and event highlights. All events will be shown across a combination of SPOTV, SPOTV2 and SPOTV NOW app, which is distributed across territories including: Indonesia (First Media, MNC Vision, K-Vision, UseeTV, MAXstream), Hong Kong (Now TV), Malaysia (Astro, Unifi TV), the Philippines (Cignal, Skycable) and Singapore (Singtel TV, StarHub TV).
The 2023 PTO Tour will start in Ibiza on 6 May with the inaugural PTO European Open before going to Milwaukee on 4-5 August for the PTO US Open and then to Singapore for the first-ever PTO Asian Open on 19-20 August. The final date for the 2023 PTO Tour season will be announced in due course.
Commenting on the news, Lee Choong Khay (CK), the CEO of SPOTV – who also broadcast key sporting properties such as Wimbledon, US Open (tennis), The Open Championships (golf) and MotoGPTM – said:
“SPOTV is committed to showing the best athletes and races from around the world. Following the success of the first PTO Tour season, along with the recent announcement that Singapore will host the inaugural PTO Asian Open in August, renewing our deal with the PTO was a quick decision. Triathlon is a global sport that is seeing exciting growth in Asia, so being able to show the world’s leading triathletes going head-to-head on different courses across the globe is something that fits well with our audience.”
In its first season, the 2022 PTO Tour delivered on its goal to bring long distance Triathlon to a broader audience, including a global dedicated TV and streaming audience of 23.1 million through multiple top-tier broadcast partnerships.
PTO Chief Marketing Officer, Tim Godfrey, responded by saying:
“It is a great testament to our first PTO Tour season that SPOTV want to renew their broadcast deal and join us on the start line for 2023. With the PTO Tour expanding into Europe and Asia and the updating of our PTO World Rankings system, we’re building up a good head of steam and starting to create a season-long schedule and narrative around our amazing athletes.”
Dale Levin, SVP, Co-Head of Media, APAC, IMG added: “This deal shows there’s a great appetite for long distance triathlon in Asia, particularly with the introduction of the first-ever PTO Asian Open in Singapore this year. It is another example of how we’re working with the PTO to drive its commercial growth around the world and attract new, in market audiences.”
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For Further Information
Professional Triathletes Organisation
Anthony Scammell E: [email protected]
About the Professional Triathletes Organisation
The PTO is a new body, co-owned by the professional athletes, seeking to elevate and grow the sport of Triathlon and take it to the next level. Each PTO Open is raced over 100km (2km swim, 80km bike and 18km run). 2023 PTO Tour races announced to date include: the PTO European Open in Ibiza on 6 May, the PTO US Open in Milwaukee on 4-5 August and the PTO Asian Open in Singapore on 19-20 August. The season will be underpinned by the new PTO World Rankings, helping to create a compelling season-long narrative in the sport for the first time.
About SPOTV
SPOTV is a subsidiary of Eclat Media Group from South Korea. As its Southeast Asia subsidiary, it is registered and based in Singapore since October 2021. The group runs the Number One sports network in South Korea, SPOTV, and has other lines of business, such as print, advertising, and PR. SPOTV runs two regional sports channels, SPOTV and SPOTV2, and is currently distributed across territories in Southeast Asia and select East Asia territories such as Indonesia (First Media, MNC Vision, K-Vision, UseeTV, MAXstream), Hong Kong (Now TV), Malaysia (Astro, Unifi TV), the Philippines (Cignal, Skycable), Singapore (Singtel TV, StarHub TV), Thailand (TrueVisions) and selected East Asia territories such as Macau (Macau Cable TV) and Mongolia (Univision).
SPOTV NOW (mobile app) is available in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore with other markets to follow. By providing more content and reaching out to a wider audience, avid sports fans can conveniently watch live, on-demand, and exclusive content on SPOTV NOW, whenever they prefer, wherever they are. SPOTV broadcasts globally renowned sports properties such as MotoGPTM, Wimbledon, US Open (tennis), The Open Championships (golf), World Table Tennis, Badminton World Federation Events as well as Asian popular sports including the Korean Baseball League (KBO) competition. SPOTV seeks to be an inclusive and dynamic platform that profoundly engages Asian sports fans.
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