Seoul Marathon: The World Is Watching

Seoul International Marathon officials announced yesterday that the race struck a broadcast agreement with Eurosport, a major European sports broadcast channel.

The 2006 Seoul International Marathon, otherwise known as the 77th Dong-A Marathon, will be aired live in about 60 countries, including all of Europe on March 12.

Eurosport, a multi-national sports channel, is headquartered in Paris. Around 104.4 million households in 54 countries watch its broadcast in 19 different languages all over Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Eurosport2 was launched last year and has 17.4 million viewers in 27 countries.

The Seoul International Marathon will be aired live on March 12 at 12:00 a.m. (Central Europe time, eight hours behind Korea time) on Eurosport2 for two hours and 45 minutes; and Eurosport proper will air the highlights of the marathon in prime time on March 15 – for 30 minutes each at 8:30 a.m. and 5:45 p.m.

Five years after the start of its first broadcast, the Seoul International Marathon has now become a truly global sport event that is aired in approximately 60 different countries. Its carriers in the Far East region include KBS of Korea, Tokyo TV, and China’s CCTV.

This year’s marathon will feature world-class male and female marathoners including Gert Thys (South Africa, 2:06:33) and Zhou Chunxiu (China, 2:21:11). The record number of 24,000 master-class marathoners will run together in this event.

Jae-Yun Jung jaeyuna@donga.com