The Boat Race announces new four-year broadcast deal with BBC

The partnership will run between 2022 and 2025

BBC Television first covered the Men’s Race in 1938Chmee2/Wikimedia Commons

by Liam Kline

Friday October 29 2021, 12:00pm

The Boat Race Company Ltd. today (29/10) announced that the BBC will continue to broadcast The Boat Race in a new four-year partnership that will run between 2022 and 2025.

Next year will see the 76th Women’s and the 167th Men’s Boat Race return to its iconic Championship Course that stretches over 6.8km of tidal Thames in West London between Putney and Mortlake. The 2021 Race took place on the River Great Ouse near Ely without spectators attending in person.

Through this renewed relationship, the BBC will provide Race Day coverage for both the Men’s and Women’s Races live on the BBC and via the BBC Sport website, presenting an in-depth buildup to the event with interviews and glimpses into preparations for the historic contest.

Tim Senior, The Boat Race Company Ltd. Chair, commented: “BBC Sport has been an excellent partner over the years, and we look forward to them continuing to provide fantastic coverage, bringing The Boat Race to millions of viewers in the UK and abroad”. He continued: “2022 is an important year for us with The Boat Race returning to London after two years of disruption due to the pandemic”.

BBC’s Director of Sport, Barbara Slater, said: “Our long-standing partnership with The Boat Race is one that we greatly value and we’re delighted that it is set to continue”. She added: “The Boat Race is a highlight in the sporting calendar and the BBC will continue to deliver first-class coverage across platforms to the millions who enjoy it”.

Oxford-Cambridge Boat Races to return to London in 2022

BBC Television first broadcasted the Men’s Race in 1938, while the BBC provided its inaugural radio coverage eleven years earlier. Given that most of the 1938 Race had audio commentary only, it was not until 1949 that the event could be televised in full, using eight shore-based cameras and another in a launch following the flotilla.

Meanwhile, the Women’s Race has received television coverage and significantly grown in popularity since 2015, where both Races were finally held together on The Championship Course in London. Beforehand, the women’s event was conducted as part of the Henley Boat Races, along a 2km stretch of the River Thames referred to as the Straight Course which has been used for the Henley Royal Regatta since 1924.

The 2022 Boat Race will take place on Sunday 3rd April, with the Women’s Race scheduled at 14:23 and the Men’s starting shortly after at 15:23.

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