Seven today launched the cornerstone of its plans to make the Emirates Melbourne Cup available to more Australians than ever before with coverage across broadcast television and connected devices.
Seven will deploy digital content and coverage across an array of platforms – each leveraging, complementing and extending the network’s broadcast television coverage of the Melbourne Cup and the Melbourne Cup Carnival.
The 2016 Melbourne Cup marks the first anniversary of Seven’s launch of live-streaming of its broadcast channels with the launch of PLUS7 Live. That coverage set new benchmarks – with more than 488,000 Australians streaming the coverage across the day, and over 340,000 concurrent streams during the running of the Cup.
Seven’s plans for its multiplatform coverage of the Melbourne Cup builds on this success and the network’s multiple screen coverage of this year’s Australian Open Tennis and the Olympic Games in Rio. The network’s coverage of The Melbourne Cup will be simulcast via the PLUS7 Live mobile app and website allowing anyone to enjoy the race wherever they may be.
7Sport will be following the action throughout the day @7HorseRacing on Facebook and Twitter. Australians will be able to follow this through @Channel 7 and @7Sport. Seven will also create bespoke content on Melbourne
Cup Day for streaming live via Facebook leading up to Seven’s live coverage that day. This will also be available @Channel7. The live and free simulcast of all Seven’s channels can be accessed via PLUS7 Live (available on Telstra TV, Apple TV (4th gen), mobile iOS, Android and web).
Seven’s partners for its coverage of the Melbourne Cup across connected devices are: Emirates, AAMI, Schweppes and TAB.
Kurt Burnette, Seven’s Chief Revenue Officer, said: “Seven has delivered the most-watched events this year. Our approach is to be ‘fan first’, with television driving the delivery of our content across all screens and platforms. This year’s Melbourne Cup Carnival is no exception as we give every Australian the opportunity to watch great moments in sports live and free across the screens of Seven and deliver those audiences to our marketing and advertising partners.”
Clive Dickens, Seven’s Chief Digital Officer, said: “The combined live broadcast and live-streaming total audience for last year’s Melbourne Cup was the highest since 2012. Over the past 12 months, we have served over 60 million additional live streams. We expect our extended digital coverage and promotion of this year’s live coverage to significantly surpass the 2015 streaming record.”
Saul Shtein, Seven’s Head of Sport, said: “We are looking forward to delivering one of the great moments in sport across every screen and device. Last year we set new benchmarks in our audience delivery and took that to another level during the Olympic Games. Our Melbourne Cup coverage will be engaging with our audiences wherever they may be.”
