With few events on the International water sports calendar until next year, WebCast-TV.com has come up with the perfect solution to publicize the start of its new live Web streaming service – hold its own International Cable Slider and Big Air contest.
And what better venue than the Orlando Watersports Complex, located near Orlando International Airport. OWC over the years has been the host of many of the major water-ski and wakeboarding events, drawing skiers and riders from around the world. OWC is the only facility in the United States with two cableways and a boat section equipped with Ski and Air Nautiques.
OWC has agreed to host the event on Sunday, December 18, starting at 10 a.m. (EST) (3 p.m. (UK, GMT) or 4 p.m. in Northern Europe). Orlando is fortunate to be home to a large number of international riders who come to this part of Florida to train in the warm winter sunshine.
A number of the top wakeboarders came down to the site this week, including the recently crowned World Cup Champion Phillip Soven to prepare a short trailer of what you might expect to see on the day. This will shortly be uploaded onto our web site www.WebCast-tv.com
The event has been sanctioned by the World Wakeboarding Association and is being supported by many of the local Watersports companies and enthusiasts in the area.
Invitations have been sent out to all the top international wakeboard and wakeskate riders, including those from the Hyperlite, Fox and Red Bull teams and the indication is that they would not want to miss the publicity that this event will create. The event will be hosted by two of the most recognized riders on the planet, Dallas Friday and Shaun Murray. The duo will also have the help of one of the top drivers/coaches in the world (Travis Moye) who will add the color. All the riders and the organizers so far involved are fully behind the project of bringing live wakeboarding and other extreme sports to your computer screen. WebCast-TV hopes to be the catalyst to make this happen and to be the global crossroads where enthusiasts from around the world will be able to find live coverage of their favorite sport.
Another first, certainly for a watersports event, is that viewers will be choosing a wild-card entry to each event of the competition. We will be asking non-invited riders to send in their best trick by December 1 (please see Web site for details) and we will upload them onto our website. There will then be an online voting form so that viewers can choose who they most want to see at the competition.
Not only will the viewers be choosing the wild-card entries, they will also be choosing the winner. Although the preliminary rounds will be judged by qualified judges, once each final is complete, viewers will be able to register their votes online, all absolutely free. We are up for it and so are the riders. We hope that the viewers will be as well. It could make for some very interesting viewing stats! Certainly 60 percent of countries around the world should be able to watch it during normal viewing hours and for the others, they will be able to watch a full archived version the following day. There will also be clips available for video-pod casting or for downloading to your computer later.
Wakeboarding is what has brought the founders of WebCast-TV together to be able to show the 30 million skiers and riders from 90 nations around the world live action of their favorite athletes. WebCast-TV will be looking to obtain the Web streaming rights to be able to screen as many as possible of the major Wakeboarding competitions is the US and Europe in 2006, that do no already have Live TV coverage. This, however, will only be the start. WebCast-TV is already in talks with the organizers of other sports and hope to be able to bring a major ‘Mini Moto-X’ event to you early in the nnew year.
This first event will be on a free2view basis. Where sponsorship will not cover the full cost of future productions, there will be a nominal charge to view the event. Members will join up and pay a subscription. Whenever they watch an event; money will be deducted from their account. Subscribers will only be charged whilst they are on air so the cost is totally in the hands of the viewer. Rates will start at $1.00 per hour although some events may be more if the production costs are high for that particular event.
Further Press Releases will be issued as soon as terms have been agreed with the Title Sponsor and as soon as acceptances have been received from the riders.
