COLUMBIA, Md.—The World Surf League (WSL) is expanding its relationship with LTN to include content versioning for worldwide distribution this year, bringing a wider range of tailored live events to international audiences.
The expanded relationship builds on the WSL’s use of LTN services, including remote production, monetization and distribution technologies. LTN enables the surfing group to deliver year-round coverage from coastal locations in multiple languages and across global broadcast, digital and free, ad-supported TV (FAST) platforms, the video vendor said.
The multiyear deal with LTN will enable the WSL to deliver more than 1,000 hours of live content per year to millions of global viewers across the surfing circuit’s digital platforms, social media and broadcast and streaming partners, including expanded coverage on ESPN+ in the U.S. and Disney+ in Latin America and the Caribbean, it said.
“We want to bring as many live surfing events as possible to our fast-growing global fan community—on every continent and any platform,” Rob Hammer, WSL senior vice president of broadcast and studio operations, said. “LTN enables us to reliably deliver live feeds at low latency from remote venues and customize content at scale for downstream partners, all within one connected IP video distribution ecosystem. Our partnership gives us the flexibility to produce more high-quality live events and engage new audiences worldwide.”
The WSL relies on a full suite of LTN intelligent IP video-distribution technologies, including live video acquisition, routing, ad signaling, master control and playout, to enable reliable connectivity in challenging coastal locations while delivering live events across all platforms.
To engage global audiences with language-tailored live experiences at scale, WSL uses LTN’s live event versioning solution, LTN Arc, to seamlessly create multiple versions of live-event feeds for domestic and international distribution, including remote local-language commentary in Spanish and Portuguese, tailored graphics, closed captioning, subtitling and custom ad-trigger insertion for localized advertising, it said.
The WSL 2025 Championship Tour began Jan. 27 at surfing’s spiritual home of Banzai Pipeline, Hawaii. The tournament schedule includes 11 regular-season events, including the debut of Surf Abu Dhabi and the return of iconic venues Snapper Rocks, Australia; Lower Trestles in San Diego; and Jeffreys Bay, South Africa. For the first time, Fiji's legendary Cloudbreak will host the WSL Finals to determine the 2025 world champions in late August and early September, the WSL said.
Alongside immersive live coverage of the Championship Tour, LTN enables the WSL to offer global audiences a diverse range of live surfing events across its full-season calendar, including the Longboard Tour, Big Wave surfing in Nazaré, Portugal, and Championship Tour qualification via the Challenger Series and Qualifying Series.
More information is available on LTN’s website.
