BT Sport extends rights deal for the Henley Royal Regatta

The Stewards of Henley Royal Regatta has renewed its rights agreement with BT Sport, concluding a deal which will see live and exclusive television coverage of the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the Regatta continue in the UK for 2020 — following the success of the 2019 event last weekend.

The new deal sits alongside the ongoing live streaming of the event around the world on YouTube and will see BT Sport show approximately eight hours of live coverage per day.

Since embarking on the strategy in 2015 of broadcasting the Regatta live, every race of the event has also been shown on YouTube. In that time rowers and fans of the famous event from around the world have watched over 50 million minutes of coverage online.

Sunset+Vine will continue as the production partner to the Regatta and to BT Sport.

Steve Redgrave, chairman of the Regatta’s committee of management said: “The first five years of our broadcast project has been a game-changer for the Regatta and for rowing. We have already broadcast more than twelve hundred races with every single one live on YouTube and available on-demand post-event.”

Simon Green, head of BT Sport, added: “Henley Royal Regatta is a fixture of the English summer and also a landmark on the international rowing calendar. BT Sport viewers have the opportunity to enjoy world-class rowing from junior to collegiate to national squad level in an iconic setting for the next two years.”

Henley Royal Regatta, founded in 1839, is the best-known rowing regatta in the world, renowned for its gladiatorial match-racing.

One of the highlights of the summer sporting and social calendar in the UK, as well as the rowing calendar internationally, it attracts 300,000 visitors over a five-day period.

More than 300 races are staged at the Regatta, featuring Olympians and emerging stars from around the world.

The 2019 Henley Royal Regatta took place from 3 to 7 July