Sochi 2014 Paralympics Broadcast Rights in New Zealand Awarded to Attitude Pictures
New Zealand to receive free-to-air coverage of Winter Paralympic Games
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has awarded the host broadcast rights in New Zealand for the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games to Attitude Pictures Ltd (APL), an award-winning independent production company specialising in content featuring people with impairments.
Attitude Pictures will present New Zealand audiences with 44 hours of free coverage and highlights packages from Sochi 2014 March 7-16, as well as documentaries on competing athletes, via its innovative new web platform AttitudeLive.com.
APL founder and chief executive Robyn Scott-Vincent believes the deal is a highly collaborative agreement where APL, as the rights holder of Paralympic media content, will actively drive a strategy of sharing content with other media to ensure the broadest coverage possible. NZ On Air funding has enabled the Attitude team to be in Sochi for the Games.
“Attitude’s producers will package highlights for TVNZ and we are talking to other potential media partners,” Scott-Vincent said. “We will also continue our well-established and critically acclaimed documentaries profiling New Zealand athletes.
“Part of our belief is that we need to engage the audience and raise the profile of the athletes and that this will help change attitudes towards the one in five New Zealanders who live with disability. These athletes are role models. The countless medals achieved by NZ Paralympians like Adam Hall, Sophie Pascoe, Cameron Leslie and others show what’s possible. But we’re eager to encourage young people to see a pathway in sport whether that is rehabilitation, recreation or elite performance.”
The Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games will take place between March 7 - 16 and will feature around 600 athletes from 44 countries. They will compete in 72 medal events across five sports – alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, ice sledge hockey and wheelchair curling.