America's Cup Racing Returns to Live Television

The decisive final day of dramatic racing at the AC World Series Newport will be shown coast to coast in the USA on NBC television on July 1, signaling the return of live America's Cup racing to network television in the United States for the first time in 20 years.

The final day of racing on Sunday will determine not just the winner of the Newport event, but will also decide the 2011-12 AC World Series Championship. Currently, ORACLE TEAM USA's Jimmy Spithill holds a narrow four-point lead in the overall series.

Televised action, including both the match racing and fleet racing finals, is scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday July 1. The 90-minute program will be available across the United States on the main NBC network.

in Newport consists of four full days of match and fleet racing from June 28-July 1 with the AC Village in Newport open from June 23 through July 1.

In the Newport area, NBC 10, the AC World Series Newport Official Television Partner, will bring viewers special programing, including a showing on June 23 of America’s Cup Uncovered followed by a live special, ‘America’s Cup: The Races Return’. This live special will touch on the history of the America’s Cup races in Newport since 1983, preview the races and let local fans know how they can enjoy the Newport event, on TV and on web and mobile platforms. Me-TV, the digital tier station of NBC 10, will be showing live racing on Thursday June 28 to Saturday June 30, before NBC takes over on Sunday July 1.

Comcast Sports in California will also have live racing each day, as well as a full replay at 2100 PDT.

Globally, the Emmy award-winning coverage is available on more than 35 networks including Mediaset in Italy, Canal+ in France, SkySports in the UK, Supersport in South Africa, Rogers Sportsnet in Canada, OSN across the Middle-East, Fox Sports in Australia and TVNZ in New Zealand.

Coverage is also available live and on-demand worldwide on YouTube.com/AmericasCup, subject to territorial broadcast agreements. In the United States, the broadcast agreement with NBC means there will be no live coverage on Sunday July 1 on YouTube. Replays, highlights and on-demand are unaffected however and will be available on YouTube in the USA throughout all four days of the AC World Series in Newport.

Eight crews from six countries are competing in the 2011-12 AC World Series, including: Artemis Racing (Sweden), skipper Terry Hutchinson; Emirates Team New Zealand (New Zealand), skipper Dean Barker; Energy Team (France), helmsman Loïck Peyron; Luna Rossa Challenge (Italy), with two boats, helmsmen Chris Draper and Paul Campbell-James; ORACLE TEAM USA (USA) with two boats, skippers James Spithill and Russell Coutts; and Team Korea (Korea) with skipper Nathan Outteridge.

Details on the AC World Series Newport racing program as well as start times is available onwww.americascup.com