TV 2 in major deal with The Arctic Challenge

Norwegian broadcaster TV 2 gets ready for the Sotchi Olympics with World Snowboard Tour and The Arctic Challenge (TAC). After a rest year doing the World Snowboarding Championships, TAC is back in Oslo. When the snowboard elite returns to conquer the monster halfpipe in Oslo Winterpark, TV 2 is producing and airing the world class TV show.

TAC 2013 is the men’s halfpipe finals of the World Snowboard Tour (previously TTR). The best 20 riders from the halfpipe ranking, and 4 wild cards, arrives in Oslo to battle it out for the prestigious trophy. The TV 2 viewers can also follow the World Snowboard Tour (WST) throughout the season – starting with the magnificent Air&Style at the Bird’s Nest in Beijing in early December.

Snowboarding was among the most popular live tv airings from the Vancouver Olympics, and IOC is expanding the action sports content for each Olympics as these sports have strong impact on the youth. In Sotchi slopestyle snowboarding makes it debut on the Olympic program. So does freesking with both halfpipe and slopestyle.
“We’re doing a major project on The Arctic Challenge and World Snowboard Tour. With this project we are both preparing for Sotchi and reaching out to young viewers” says Bjorn Taalesen, head of sports at TV 2.

The Arctic Challenge has been the laboratory for International snowboarding in soon 15 years. The organizers were part of starting the World Snowboard Tour (previously TTR) in 2002, they initiated the World Snowboarding Championships in 2007 and invented the Snowboarding Livescoring System (SLS) in 2010. SLS is now being used by all 6 star events in the world for judging and tv graphics presentation.
“We are looking forward to push the limits even further together with TV 2. Our ambition is always to deliver the best tv product out there” says Henning Andersen, TAC CEO.

The world’s best halfpipe riders arrive in Oslo on March 5th. Semifinals and finals are on March 9th – a Saturday night finals in Oslo in front of 6000 fans is a dream come true for many snowboarders. Both the semifinals and finals runs live on TV 2 main channel. IMG is in charge of International TV and online distribution.