Drones, AR and VR in the offing as Extreme E appoints Aurora Media and North One as host broadcasters

The All3Media group companies Aurora Media Worldwide and North One will produce the host broadcast coverage of Extreme E when the inaugural season of the off-road racing competition starts next year.

The two companies, who have previously worked together on Formula E, have secured a multi-year deal that will include 30 hours of live race coverage plus highlights, and a 20-part supporting TV series, as well as the production of 300 short films for digital and social platforms.

The latter will chart the behind-the-scenes, sporting and climate change narrative of the electric car championship.

Announcing the deal, Extreme E said that the competition’s five remote race locations, which include desert, arctic, rainforest, glacier and coastal sites, will “provide a stunning canvas for hybrid storytelling” adding that a significant part of the broadcast will focus on the landscapes that have “been damaged by environmental issues, allowing Extreme E to tell the stories of the global climate crisis.”

The live racing will be captured through a mixture of track, on-board and live drone cameras and a suite of data-driven AR and VR graphics.

“Extreme E will take us all to a whole new level – in terms of the extreme locations we will visit, the cutting-edge production technology we will deploy and the array of content platforms we will serve.”

The production will also make use of remote technology, minimising on-site footprint with all shows, mastered in London, in real-time, direct from all of the championship’s global locations.

Ali Russell, the chief marketing officer at Extreme E, said: “As Extreme E is taking place in remote locations, with no fans on-site, our broadcast content is the primary window to our sport and is crucial to our success.

“Aurora Media Worldwide and North One are trusted leaders in broadcasting and I know they will bring our unique motorsport adventure and our incredible locations to life in a way that inspires our fans in ways never seen before in motorsport.

“Whilst world-class sporting action will be at the core, our mission is to take our audiences on a journey that inspires each and every one of us to more closely consider the effect of our actions on the future of our planet, so our broadcast content will play a critical role in that goal.”

North One chief executive Neil Duncanson added: “We had always thought that running the World Rally Championship and broadcasting from some of the most hostile environments on the planet would always be our toughest motorsport assignment. We were wrong. Extreme E will take us all to a whole new level – in terms of the extreme locations we will visit, the cutting-edge production technology we will deploy and the array of content platforms we will serve. It is a hugely exciting proposition.”

Broadcasters signed up to take the live coverage of Extreme E include the BBC (UK), Discovery (Europe and North America), Mediaset (Italy), RTL 7 (The Netherlands), ORF (Austria), Saran (Turkey) and BTRC (Belarus).

Extreme E is due to start its inaugural season 23-24 January 2021 in Senegal. 

Picture credit: Charley Lopez