- Strong broadcast performance across Warner Bros. Discovery platforms
Biometric data on broadcast for the first time in the sport
Record number of teams, athletes and nationalities participated
U23 Cross-country Olympic race streamed live for the first time
Nové Město na Moravě in the Czech Republic saw the first live broadcast from the UCI Mountain Bike World Series hit screens around the globe with the opening round of the UCI Mountain Bike Cross-country World Cup. The event, which took place from the 11 - 14 May, 2023, showcased a huge step change in the presentation and broadcast of the sport.
Live coverage of the thrilling action outperformed the time slot average on linear channels in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and France while social engagement on Warner Bros. Discovery's platforms - via viewership through the live streams and reach on social media - performed well above expectations, underlining the company's commitment to super-serving the mountain bike community with live racing, news, views and interviews.
The weekend saw a flurry of firsts for the sport including live biometric data from Whoop bands on the broadcast and on-bike live sensors that will pave the way for more data and insights from the track.
And it wasn’t only innovations in tech that launched in Nové Město na Moravě. Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (WBD Sports) has brought in the new era with a slick on-site look and feel that includes state of the art LED technology on the start/finish straight, streamlined and reusable course marking that makes the sport easier to follow and safer for athletes, as well as on-event structures that puts the presentation of mountain bike in line with the sporting big guns.
The future heroes of the sport were not forgotten in Nové Město na Moravě, when, for the first time in UCI Mountain Bike World Cup history, the entire U23 Cross-country Olympic race was streamed live on YouTube for fans to enjoy.
In 2023, UCI Mountain Bike World Series has also seen a record number of athletes and teams registering for UCI Mountain Bike World Cups, including three UCI World Tour teams - Ineos Grenadier, Jumbo Visma and Alpecin-Deceuninck - laying the foundations for exciting discipline cross-overs in the cycling world. This record-breaking attendance of over 100 teams, 49 nationalities and over 1000 athletes, gives confidence in the growth of the sport and the willingness to support the revolution that is taking place in mountain biking in the WBD Sports era.
Coverage of UCI Mountain Bike World Cups at UCI Mountain Bike World Series events will be available across key Warner Bros. Discovery channels including Eurosport, discovery+ and GCN+, as well as local broadcasters across five continents, making the sport the most accessible it’s ever been.
Leader of Mountain Bike for Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, Chris Ball, said:
We’re incredibly proud to broadcast our first UCI Mountain Bike World Cup and the strong figures and brilliant engagement have already shown us that we’re on the right track and the future is bright.
Nové Město na Moravě provided excellent racing and the new technology and additional resources we’ve brought to the broadcast highlighted this perfectly. It’s also fantastic to see U23 racing enjoy live coverage for the first time, as this will only help elevate the profile of the sport’s up and coming talent.
The positive results from our first weekend demonstrates the huge appetite amongst existing fans and our work to bring new fans to the sport, whilst using coordinated links to our Giro d’Italia coverage on the same weekend proved hugely successful for attracting new viewers.
