Isle of Man Guide

Another Isle of Man sporting event is receiving publicity world-wide thanks to the medium of television. Coverage of the 2005 CMI Parish Walk is currently being shown to a potential audience of 480 million people.

An hour long programme, produced by the Douglas-based MBS Productions Limited, was originally shown by Sky Sports in July and repeated seven times. Now, edited highlights featuring Robbie Callister’s triumph in the 85 miles event have been included in Sports Unlimited, the world’s largest alternative sports programme. This is taken by 23 broadcasters in 94 countries and means nearly 200 million homes could be watching one of the Island’s unique sporting events.

Tourism Minister David Cretney said: ‘These are indeed exciting times for Manx sport and the Island in general. Years ago we could only have dreamed about television coverage such as we are receiving now and this is bound to benefit all sections of the Manx economy.

‘There is no way of quantifying how many extra visitors are brought to the Island by this coverage but when pictures of the Isle of Man’s beautiful scenery are beamed into hundreds of millions of homes all over the world there is bound to be a spin-off effect. I congratulate the production companies based in the Island for the publicity they are achieving for us.’

Plans are already in place for MBS Productions to televise next year’s Parish Walk and this time the coverage will include shots taken from cameras in a helicopter and on a motorcycle.

The company is currently producing highlights of the European Pool Championships at the Villa Marina for broadcast by Sky Sports starting on October 24. The four one-hour programmes will each be shown three times on consecutive days.

MBS Productions, started by Manx businessman Brian Kelly earlier this year, has also been responsible for televising the Manx Crown Green Bowling Classic in June and the prestigious Waterloo Championship from Blackpool last month.

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