SPOTV renews broadcast deal with PTO for expanding 2023 PTO Tour

The Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) has renewed its broadcast deal with SPOTV, South Korea’s number one linear and digital sports service to Southeast Asia.

Building on two years of partnership since the inaugural Collins Cup in 2021 and the first PTO Tour in 2022, the deal for 2023 includes live coverage of all PTO Tour races as well as countdown preview programmes and event highlights. All events will be shown across a combination of SPOTV, SPOTV2 and SPOTV NOW app, which is distributed across territories including: Indonesia (First Media, MNC Vision, K-Vision, UseeTV, MAXstream), Hong Kong (Now TV), Malaysia (Astro, Unifi TV), the Philippines (Cignal, Skycable) and Singapore (Singtel TV, StarHub TV).

The 2023 PTO Tour will start in Ibiza on 6 May with the inaugural PTO European Open before going to Milwaukee on 4-5 August for the PTO US Open and then to Singapore for the first-ever PTO Asian Open on 19-20 August. The final date for the 2023 PTO Tour season will be announced in due course.

Lee Choong Khay (CK), the CEO of SPOTV – who also broadcast key sporting properties such as Wimbledon, US Open (tennis), The Open Championships (golf) and MotoGP – said: “SPOTV is committed to showing the best athletes and races from around the world. Following the success of the first PTO Tour season, along with the recent announcement that Singapore will host the inaugural PTO Asian Open in August, renewing our deal with the PTO was a quick decision.

“Triathlon is a global sport that is seeing exciting growth in Asia, so being able to show the world’s leading triathletes going head-to-head on different courses across the globe is something that fits well with our audience.”

In its first season, the 2022 PTO Tour delivered on its goal to bring long distance Triathlon to a broader audience, including a global dedicated TV and streaming audience of 23.1 million through multiple top-tier broadcast partnerships.

PTO Chief Marketing Officer, Tim Godfrey, added: “It is a great testament to our first PTO Tour season that SPOTV want to renew their broadcast deal and join us on the start line for 2023. With the PTO Tour expanding into Europe and Asia and the updating of our PTO World Rankings system, we’re building up a good head of steam and starting to create a season-long schedule and narrative around our amazing athletes.”

Dale Levin, SVP, Co-Head of Media, APAC, IMG, said: “This deal shows there’s a great appetite for long distance triathlon in Asia, particularly with the introduction of the first-ever PTO Asian Open in Singapore this year. It is another example of how we’re working with the PTO to drive its commercial growth around the world and attract new, in market audiences.”