Sky has invested $1m (£750,000) in the Drone Racing League (DRL) in a deal to broadcast the thrilling U.S. competition on Sky Sports Mix.
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The Drone Racing League sees sees competitors pilot custom-designedcraft through three-dimensional courses using headsets giving a first-person view. It will cover five races, including a winner-take-all world championship to crown the best drone pilot.
The deal will see the Game of Thrones broadcaster show live drone events to viewers in the United Kingdom and Ireland, including the winner-takes-all DRL 2016 world championship, on its new Sports Mix channel.
The broadcasts will air from this October on the newly launched Sky Sports Mix channel.
Is drone racing the sport of the future?
The investment follows a bigger deal in June in which Sky invested in e-sports firm Ginx as part of plans to set up a 24-hour e-sports channel.
The UK already has a fledgling drone-racing scene backed up by the European Rotor Sports Association (ERSA), but compared to the USA it has a serious lack of funding so can’t provide quite the same spectacle as the DRL.
Drone Racing has been described as the “sport of the future” and it is coming to Sky Sports.
Nicholas Horbaczewski, founder of DRL added: “With [Sky’s] expertise and our industry leading technology, media production and development of the best competitive racing, we believe we can truly grow a global franchise around this futuristic, high-speed racing sport”.
In the USA, the DRL already has a broadcast deal with the ESPN network, and a world championship is held in Texas each August.
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Sky group business development director Emma Lloyd said: “The investments we make are all about driving innovation, and ultimately improving the Sky experience for customers”.
