|
|
|
| Photo Galleries Blog Athlete Features News Links | About/Support Contact RSS |
BOSTON, MA – WBZ-TV is proud to announce that the station will once again broadcast its exclusive, complete local coverage of the Boston Marathon in 2007. WBZ-TV will go from start to finish with comprehensive, live coverage of the 111th running of the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 16, 2007. With earlier start times debuting in 2007, WBZ-TV looks forward to being the only station that continues 27 years of complete coverage of one of the region's premiere sporting events.
"The Boston Marathon is one of the most significant athletic events in the world, and it means even more to the people who live right here in the state and the region," said Ed Piette, President and General Manager of Boston's WBZ-TV, TV38 (WSBK), and Providence's CW28 (WLWC). "'BZ has a long and distinguished tradition of carrying this event in its entirety. When WCVB pulled out of the race, changing the dynamics of the coverage model, we very much wanted to figure out a way that WBZ could still bring the Marathon to viewers. After discussions and updated strategic planning with the B.A.A., we have developed a plan which will serve our community, deliver quality audiences to our advertising partners, while providing world class coverage of the Marathon from Main Street in Hopkinton to Boston's Boylston Street finish line and everything in between."
"WBZ-TV has partnered with the B.A.A. to televise the Boston Marathon for nearly three decades," said Guy L. Morse, Executive Director of the B.A.A. "Many local viewers tie their Patriots' Day tradition to watching WBZ-TV's coverage of the Boston Marathon, and we are pleased that the station will continue to show the extensive, unparalleled coverage that local viewers appreciate and count on. WBZ-TV has demonstrated for years that coverage of an international sporting event can – at the same time – be focused on the event as a community-wide celebration, as a race for local participants and as an elite road race."
Boston's WBZ-TV is owned and operated by CBS Television Stations, one of the largest network-owned groups consisting of 39 stations, including 21 CBS, 11 The CW, three MyNetworkTV and four independent stations not affiliated with major networks.
Also, the Boston Marathon will be carried live and wire-to-wire nationally in the United States on VERSUS (formerly OLN), the outlet of domestic distribution in 2005 and 2006. The B.A.A. will announce its international carriers prior to the 2007 race.
Posted by Alison Wade at 8:13 p.m. | Tags: Television Coverage
pjm commented, on January 2, 2007 at 3:08 p.m.:
This comes off as a positive - Hey, look, complete TV coverage! - it's actually more of a "could be worse." For years, Boston had multiple competing local broadcasts; as this press release notes, now there's just the one. (If I recall correctly, another station announced they wouldn't do the broadcast; WBZ may have been considering dropping theirs as well.)
The national broadcast, apparently, will be (relatively) unchanged, a third year with OLN. While the network change from ESPN a few years ago meant different show directors, the production crew and on-screen "talent" has seen only minor changes since then.