Archery World Cup broadcast reaches nearly 150 million in 2022

Broadcast of the 2022 Hyundai Archery World Cup reached more than 147 million people across linear and digital platforms with social media impressions topping 180 million according to an independent report by data agency IRIS.

More than 1500 hours of live, delayed and highlight coverage was shown by World Archery‘s broadcast partners in key territories during the season, an increase of 60% on 2021.

The sport’s growing popularity in China, India, Chinese Taipei and, lately, Türkiye has been the catalyst for the jump in numbers.

Turkish national broadcaster TRT programmed the full season for the first time in 2022 following Mete Gazoz’s historic win at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

SPOTV took on archery’s rights in Korea and Southeast Asia at the start of the year. That deal runs through 2024.

Claro Sports in Latin America, SonyTEN in the Indian subcontinent, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV and Eleven in Chinese Taipei also broadcast the 2022 Hyundai Archery World Cup season in full. Eurosport carried highlights.

This year’s international circuit consisted of five events: Four stages in Türkiye, Korea, France and Colombia, plus a final in Mexico.

Next season’s calendar is expected to be released later this week following a meeting of World Archery’s executive board.

The international federation recently announced the launch of archery+, a bespoke OTT platform that will broadcast major archery events to countries in which the federation does not already have a rights holder.

World Archery president Prof Dr Ugur Erdener said:

“We’re proud to see another season of growth for archery’s worldwide audience, just one year removed from the Olympics in Tokyo and only one year away from the start of qualification for Paris 2024. Not only is the reach of the sport increasing but so is the buy-in from our valued broadcast partners, with more hours of our marquee events being shown on television than ever before.”

“World Archery is committed to investing in broadcast at all levels of the sport. That is why, as well as continuing to build distribution of the Hyundai Archery World Cup and world championships, we’re investing in our own OTT platform as we make more coverage of more second tier tournaments available to our growing fanbase.” BCS Bureau