The Tour de France’s Global popularity continues to grow as more and more countries having the 2011 race on TV. After race owner ASO’s signing agreements with around a hundred channels around the World, the Tour will be viewed in 190 countries this year. With the sport’s population growing in Asia, Thailand and South Korea have become the latest countries to join the list.
In addition to the extra countries showing the race, says ASO, a number of national TV channels, including Czech TV and SVT of Slovakia, will be showing race live every day. Several long-term contracts have also been renewed with broadcasters, including the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), Eurosport Asia and Sky TV in New Zealand.
More and more TV being shown in high definition, and the Tour is no exception. The images are produced by France Télévisions and, in addition to a number of European broadcasters, they will be shown by Versus (USA), JSports (Japan), Sky TV (New Zealand), SuperSports (Africa), SBS (Australia), ESPN Inter (South America) and Canal Evasion (Canada).
In addition, this year six key stages of the race will be broadcast live from start to finish.