BIGGER BETTER BADMINTON

 

Badminton HouseHorse & Country TV (H&C) has today announced the schedule for its coverage of this year’s Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials. Thanks to a ground-breaking deal between H&C and the BBC, giving H&C access to all of the BBC’s world class footage, viewers will be able to see more Badminton this year than ever before.

 

Monday May 25th heralds the launch of Badminton Week on H&C. Programmes will run on every weekday culminating at the weekend in an eight hour special featuring all of the main action from this year’s event.

 

In the prime 8pm slot from Monday to Friday there’s a one hour show dedicated to Badminton’s illustrious history. The line up is as follows:

 

·        Monday 25th:                     Badminton’s Greatest Years Part One: 1994.

·        Tuesday 26th:                     Badminton’s Greatest Years Part Two: 2005.

·        Wednesday 27th:               Badminton’s Greatest Years Part Three: 2008.

·        Thursday 28th:                   Mary King’s Greatest Badmintons

·        Friday 29th:                         Badminton’s Glorious Decade: 1984 -1994

 

Also showing throughout the week will be a series of short films each of which features one of Badminton’s scariest jumps. Introduced by Mike Tucker these will feature rarely seen footage from the archive.

 

Then Saturday and Sunday are dedicated to unparalleled in depth coverage of this year’s event. The eight hour extravaganza features all of the main action along with behind the scenes interviews and the course walk with Mike Tucker and Hugh Thomas. The schedule is as follows:

 

·        Dressage – 30 minutes

·        Course Walk – 30 minutes

·        Cross Country – Six and a half hours

·        Show Jumping – 30 minutes

 

The whole eight hour block will be repeated six times over the course of the weekend with start times at 6am, 2pm and 10pm on each of Saturday and Sunday.

 

And Badminton will feature as prominently online at horseandcountry.tv as it does on-air. Following on from the success of H&C’s live streaming of cross country day, our online offering for Badminton Week is as comprehensive as that on TV. All the programmes featured will be available to watch on demand, bringing H&C to viewers outside of the SKY family. Users can also catch up on Badminton news from before, during and after the event and enjoy Olympic bronze medallist Sharon Hunt’s exclusive H&C blog that details her Badminton experience.

 

And on the principle that you can never have too much of a good thing, H&C will be producing a ninety minute highlights show that will be go on air later in June giving viewers yet another opportunity to enjoy Oliver Townend’s momentous victory.

 

Justin Albert, MD of H&C commented:

 

“At H&C we’re committed to giving a passionate audience every possible opportunity to indulge that passion. We know how much Badminton means to people and H&C’s unique on-air and online combination means more opportunities to see more of what you really care about.”

 

 

About H&C

H&C launched in 2007 and broadcasts at channel number 280 on Sky. In December last year new investors bought into the Channel and a new management team has been put in place. Both the Channel and the web site will undergo a complete relaunch in May this year.  As a first step the Channel has been rescheduled with each night of the week focusing on one of H&C’s five key themes (Horse, Dog, Land, Life and Fish) as follows:

  •  Monday: Land (agriculture, farming)
  • Tuesday: Horse (sports)
  • Wednesday: Horse (“how to”)
  • Thursday: Dogs
  • Friday: Fish (angling: coarse, fly, carp and sea)
  • Saturday: Horse (sport)
  • Sunday: Life (country living, cookery, gardening etc)

 

For further information contact Richard Burdett, Commercial Director on:

P: 02476 692269

M: 07768 511702

E: info@horseandcountry.tv

 

ENDS

For further press information contact Tim Smith at TSM on (01724) 784600