NEW YORK, NY (September 28th,2020) – NBC Sports Group announced today an agreement for exclusive U.S. distribution rights for the rapidly growing phenomenon of World Chase Tag.
World Chase Tag USA will now take place at The Roxy in Atlanta, Georgia and will be broadcast on NBCSN in an eight-episode series airing between November 5th - December 18th 2020. The competition premiered in the U.S. on NBCSN’sDecember 2019 broadcast of the World Chase Tag 2019 event held in London.
World ChaseTag (WCT) combines the dynamic athleticism of Parkour with the age-old game ofTag. Invented by brothers Christian and Damien Devaux in the U.K., the competition began in 2016 and has quickly built a cult following around the world, securing millions of online views.
Two teams of up to six athletes battle it out in a series of 20-second Chases featuring oneChaser and one Evader. All the action takes place on a 40’ x 40’ arena filled with a maze of obstacles and platforms called the ‘Quad’ and features the bestParkour athletes from around the world. (For more information, please see NBCSN’s 2019 WCT Intro).
WCT has amassed a global following with more than 350 million organic online views, including 60 WCT related videos with more than 1 million views and 52 million organic views in the last 12 months on the World Chase Tag YouTube channel. WCT has 1.5M+ total subscribers across all social media platforms.
Gray Television’s Tupelo Honey will serve as the production services company of the partnership. In July, Gray Television made a capital investment in World Chase Tag.
Christian Devaux, CEO of WCT stated, “Partnering with Gray Television and Tupelo allowsWCT to tap into a wealth of strategic knowledge and production expertise that will elevate the competition to a new level creating an annual global league rarely seen outside the world of eSports.”
Cary Glotzer, CEO of TupeloHoney and WCT President added, “Everyone can relate to WCT since we all played it as young kids. WCT’s successful model will provide compelling brand opportunities and entertaining digital programming with the best parkour athletes in the world and NBC Sports is the best partner to take WCT to the next level.”
Gary Quinn, Vice President, Programming & Owned Properties,NBC Sports Group said, “We’re excited to partner with WCT and look forward to further exposing the event and its world-class parkour athletes to fans throughout the U.S.”
Tupelo Honey produces and packages over 800 live sports and entertainment shows per year. It produces coverage of sporting events involving the NFL, MLS, PLL (Premier Lacrosse League), TBT (The BasketballTournament), ACL (American Cornhole League), College Football, CollegeBasketball, NBC Sports, ESPN, CBS Sports, Turner Sports, NFL Network, ACC Network, SEC Network, and more.
In addition, Tupelo creates, develops and produces original programming, including live music concerts forTwitter, You Tube, Facebook and other digital platforms.
Tupelo is wholly owned by Gray Television (NYSE:GTN), one of the largest television broadcast companies in the country, which also owns production companies Raycom Sports and RTMStudios.
ABOUT NBC SPORTS GROUP:
NBC Sports Group serves sports fans 24/7 with premier live events, insightful studio shows, and compelling original programming. The sports media company consists of NBC Sports, NBC Olympics,NBCSN, Golf Channel, Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA, NBC Sports RegionalNetworks, NBC Sports Audio Network and NBC Sports Digital, which includes NBCSports.com, NBCOlympics.com,GolfChannel.com, the digital assets of theNBC Sports Regional Networks, Rotoworld, the NBC Sports Talk franchise, multiple apps, and two transactional sports businesses, GolfNow andSportsEngine, and a direct-to-consumer product NBC Sports Gold. NBC SportsGroup possesses an unparalleled collection of media rights agreements, partnering with some of the most prestigious sports properties in the world:the International Olympic Committee and United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, the NFL, NHL, NASCAR, INDY CAR, PGA TOUR, The R&A, PGA of America, USGA, ChurchillDowns, Premier League, Tour de France, French Open, and many more.
Articles
Contacts:
United States:
Cary I. Glotzer Cary@worldchasetag.com
United Kingdom:
Christian Devaux Christian@worldchasetag.com