BBC Sport Announces Independent Production Companies for Moto GP, World Bowls and Cricket World Cup 2011

BBC Sport Announces Independent Production Companies for Moto GP, World Bowls and Cricket World Cup

BBC Sport has today announced that Century TV, Input Media and Sunset+Vine will be responsible for delivering coverage for MotoGP, World Bowls and highlights coverage of the 2011 Cricket World Cup respectively.

Century TV, who will be based in Northern Ireland, have been awarded a three-year deal to provide coverage of the Moto GP season. The season begins in Qatar in late March and finishes in Valencia, Spain, in early November.

Rohan Browning, Managing Director, Century TV, said: “We are delighted to have secured the BBC MotoGP contract. These are very exciting times for Century TV and as our production base continues to grow with our recent expansion into Northern Ireland, it is high profile projects such as the BBC MotoGP that will help to underpin and support this process.”

Input Media have been awarded a two-year contract (2010 and 2011) to bring World Bowls coverage to BBC TV. The World Bowls Championships takes place in January.

David Johnson, Managing Director, Input Media, said: “Input Media is delighted to be appointed as producer for the BBC’s coverage of the World Bowls Championships. This is a prestigious event with a great history and complemented by our team’s expertise in sport production we’re sure this will be the best Championships ever for the BBC audience.”

Sunset+Vine will provide highlights coverage of the 2011 Cricket World Cup, which takes place in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and runs between 19 February and 2 April 2011.

Jeff Foulser, Chairman Sunset+Vine, said: “Sunset+Vine is delighted to be awarded the contract to produce the Cricket World Cup for the BBC. We are looking forward to the challenge of delivering high quality daily programming from such a vibrant and cricket loving part of the world.”

Barbara Slater, Director, BBC Sport, said: “We are delighted that, following a fully open tender process, we have appointed Century, Input and Sunset & Vine to work with us on these three important events. It was a highly competitive process which demonstrated the strength of the Independent Production sector in sport in the UK.

“In total, 13 companies applied for one or more of the tenders – the majority of which would have done a first-rate job. It was a difficult decision but we believe our selected partners will help us to continue to provide editorial excellence whilst representing real value for money to the licence payer.

“We are particularly delighted to be able to complement our existing commitment to Wales and Scotland by awarding a contract based in Northern Ireland. We will shortly be advertising our next Nations Production contract coverage of Snooker.”