German TV channel SPORT1 will broadcast Kiel Week races extensively this year.

Programming includes two hours of live coverage in the early afternoon and a half-hour of highlights during primetime each day. Germany’s leading multi-channel sports platform will also accompany the world’s biggest regatta June 17 – 25 via livestream on SPORT1.de as well as on the SPORT1 app and social media channels. The broadcasts and contributions will be presented exclusively by automaker Audi, premium partner of Kiel Week.

The foiling Nacra 17 catamarans will once again provide particularly spectacular TV images when Audi presents Kiel Week on SPORT1 this year. Photo: Sascha Klahn/Kieler Woche

The partnership with TV Channel SPORT1 takes Kiel Week to a new level in terms of media coverage. For the first time, there will be several hours of broadcasts showcasing key races of the 400 scheduled races in the Olympic disciplines and international boat classes. Until now, electronic media mostly reported in news form, magazine features and regional broadcasts from Kiel-Schilksee. The parallel and accompanying coverage on the diverse digital channels sets new standards in reporting on this nine-day major event.

“After we launched Kiel Week TV more than ten years ago together with our premium partner Audi and the City of Kiel, the capital of Schleswig-Holstein, to bring the sport of sailing closer to a broader audience in an understandable way, the new partnership with SPORT1 is an absolute highlight in the further development of this format,” says Tim Häuslein, project manager at Point of Sailing, the marketing agency of the Kiel Yacht Club. The live transmissions on the large screens and monitors throughout the event area as well as the internet were always followed by tens of thousands of sailing fans and interested landlubbers. Häuslein says: “Through free TV, we now expect a significant increase in reach.”

Following the preliminaries on Friday (June 16), the first live broadcast will begin on Saturday, June 17, at 2:00pm with races on the media track directly in front of the Schilksee Olympic Harbor. On the last day, coverage will begin one hour earlier. In the evenings, the day’s highlights of Kiel Week will be summarized on SPORT1 at 7:00pm for 30 minutes with the best scenes and pictures as well as interviews. Note that on the first Sunday (June 18) the highlight program starts at 11:00pm, and on the second Saturday (June 24) at 10:00pm when SPORT1 will send its own team of reporters to Kiel to supply the various channels.

One year before the Olympic Games in France, the first part of Kiel Week will focus on the Olympic disciplines with local last year’s winners in the 470-dinghy mixed competition and the women’s iQ foil surfing.

Competitors from 50 nations have already registered, including the German World Champions Sebastian Kördel (iQ-Foil) and Luise Wanser and Philipp Autenrieth in the 470 mixed, who all start for ICOYC member club Norddeutscher Regatta Verein in Hamburg. The final results in the Sailing World Cup will be known after the medal races on Wednesday, June 21. From Thursday to Sunday, about 180 junior crews will start in the Euro Cup Regatta of the 29er and more than 70 teams in the International German Championship in the J/70.

The races broadcast live on free-TV on SPORT1 – here the 49erFX – will take place on the media course in Strander Bucht with the Bülk lighthouse in the background.  Photo: Sascha Klahn/Kieler Woche

Automaker Audi AG underpins its partnership with Kiel Week in form of exclusive broadcasts on SPORT1 TV and will be integrated extensively on free TV as well as on digital and social media channels with branded content and branded posts. Philipp Noack, Head of Sales Germany at Audi AG, explains the bond: “This is the twelfth time we have been involved in Kiel Week as a premium vehicle partner and we are proud to present visitors not only with technological innovations and sustainability activities from Audi, but also with a theme that links us very closely to Sport1: a passion for unique performance. We burn for performances that push boundaries and set milestones.”
SPORT1 Editor-in-Chief Pit Gottschalk is also looking forward to the telegenic top event as Chief Content Officer as well as a member of the management of Sport1 GmbH. “Kiel Week is the biggest sailing event in the world: with an impressive tradition and significance that extends beyond the sport. With our live, highlight and news coverage, we will stage this celebration of sailing for viewers throughout Germany on our TV, digital and social media channels, and bring them very close to the fascination of Kieler Woche with great images and passion for sailing – together with our partner Audi, which has been promoting this sport through its commitment for many years,” said Gottschalk.

The images are for free use in the context of editorial reporting.

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