FilmNova was in its second year of producing the race in partnership with the BBC
FilmNova partnered with the BBC to produce its broadcast of the 2023 Boat Race last week, working with EMG on its live OB coverage.
The production included 31 cameras across the 4.2 mile course, including use of a helipcopter, two drones, and live feeds from minicams on the Oxford and Cambridge boats as they raced (showing Cox and Stroke).
Drones have been a recent addition to the Boat Race, being used on the Thames for the first time in 2022, with EMG COO Bill Morris telling Broadcast Sport about the new technology revolutionising the event’s production last year. Last year was also the first that FilmNova partnered with the BBC on the production.
The two drones in use included one to cover racing and one for the warm-up. Traditionally the crews would row past Putney Bridge and away from cameras pre-race for their warm-up, but this year FilmNova had them covered on a drone and as part of an enhanced drone coverage plan.
This year’s first was that the coverage of the full race was delivered from a single OB - based near the start in Putney. In previous years two OBs had been used, one at the start and another at the finish, due to the length of the course. Coverage required extensive use of RF and months of planning, especially with new technical innovations being deployed.
The BBC had a large presentation line-up, including Clare Balding, Andrew Cotter, Lee McKenzie, Katherine Grainger, Zoe De Toledo, James Cracknell, Helen Glover, Grace Prendergast, Kyra Edwards, Martin Cross, Angus Groom, Qasa Alom, Matthew Holland, Wayne Pommen and Andy Triggs Hodge, and this was matched with a large audience. The women’s race peaked at 2.5 million viewers and the men’s 3.2 million, with an average audience of 2.2m and share of 22%.
The programme was also streamed by the BBC website, as well as on the Boat Race YouTube channel - which used the international feed, that was distributed via the BT Tower and broadcast live in over 200 countries.
FilmNova managing director Phil Sibson said: “Following our debut last year as the BBC’s production partner, we were delighted to be entrusted again with this prestige event. Whilst the weather wasn’t particularly helpful for the technical teams, it produced two exciting races.
“EMG’s new single OB set-up worked flawlessly, and it was particularly pleasing that the drone for the warm-up was able to tell the story of a pre-race rudder problem for Cambridge. In previous years that drama would have taken place out of sight of any cameras.”
FilmNova expressed its thanks to The Boat Race Company and to BBC Sport for trusting in the UK based production company to deliver broadcast coverage of the event for another year.
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