FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Chevron Houston Marathon to be Carried Live on ESPN3
ABC13 Production will also be Telecasted on Longhorn Network
HOUSTON (January 15, 2016) - The Houston Marathon Committee (HMC) announced
today that the 2016 Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Houston Half
Marathon will have an expanded U.S. viewing audience. The races will air
live in Houston on ABC-13, in addition to being carried on Longhorn Network
and streaming on ESPN3, Sunday, January 17th at 7:00 a.m. CT.
The 2016 Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Houston Half Marathon features
27,000 participants, 7,500 volunteers and over 200,000 spectators, making
it the largest single-day sporting event in Houston.
"Our partnership with ABC13 has been extremely beneficial to the success of
the Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Houston Half Marathon and its brand
over the years by delivering a consistently entertaining and professional
broadcast to their viewers; a fact that has been validated by this new
agreement with ESPN3 and Longhorn Network," stated Wade Morehead, Executive
Director of the Houston Marathon Committee and Foundation. "Our events have
a long and vibrant elite long distance running history, and we are
tremendously pleased that ESPN will help expand our audience nationally by
presenting our product world-wide on a mobile-friendly medium."
ABC13 will air a three-hour live broadcast of the race from 7:00 a.m. to
10:00 a.m. CT, along with a 10:35 p.m. CT event recap - The Finish Line.
The WATCH ABC app will also carry the morning broadcast, as well as pace
camera footage from the four elite races from 7:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. and a
live finish linecam on ABC13.com until 1pm. The 44th running of the race
will also be available to fans in the Houston area on WATCH ABC and
nationwide on ESPN3 across WatchESPN platforms.
"KTRK-TV has worked with the Houston Marathon for over a decade to help
grow awareness of the event," said Henry Florsheim, President and General
Manager of ABC-13/KTRK-TV. "We are overjoyed that Houston's largest single
day sporting event will now be available to viewers around the region and
the country on ESPN's Longhorn Network and ESPN3."
ABC13's programming, helmed by Tom Koch and Gina Gaston, will focus on the
four elite races, inspiring stories and features on runners. Rice
University Track & Field Coach Jon Warren and 2016 Olympic hopeful and
Houston-native Becky Wade will call the play-by-play action the elite
races. Also contributing to the broadcast will be ABC13 reporters Bob
Slovak, David Nuno, Kaitlin McCulley, Ted Oberg and Samica Knight.
The Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Houston Half Marathon have featured
the finest long distance runners in the world who have won Olympic Medals
and Marathon Majors. Houston has a long and successful racing tradition,
from staging the 1992 and 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon to hosting 16
U.S. Half Marathon National Championships, and in 2007, two-time Olympian
Ryan Hall set the American Half Marathon Record 59:47 that still stands
today.
For more information on the 2016 Chevron Houston Marathon & Aramco Houston
Half Marathon, visit www.chevronhoustonmarathon.com.
About ABC-13
For over 50 years, ABC-13 has been the undisputed news leader in Houston,
from sign-on to sign-off. Broadcasting 46 hours of locally produced
newscasts each week, ABC-13 is top-rated and most-watched among the
Houston-area viewers. ABC-13 also leads the market in its digital media
efforts, with top rankings for its website, abc13.com, Facebook and
Twitter. ABC-13 is the first and only television station in Houston with
WATCH ABC, which delivers live, 24/7 digital streaming of our programming
to users on their smartphones and tablets. ABC-13 is deeply invested in the
Houston community, and we spotlight Houston's diversity with community
affairs programs covering issues that affect different segments of our
population-from Crossroads, Viva Houston, Visions to City View. ABC-13 is
also known for telecasting most of the city's major events including the
annual July 4th Freedom Over Texas celebration, The ChevronHouston
Marathon, The Bayou Bowl and The Houston Rodeo Parade. The station also
broadcasts several community affairs projects throughout the year
including: Share Your Holidays, an annual food drive benefiting the Houston
Food Bank; and our E-cycle Drive, a collection/recycling effort for
outdated electronic equipment in conjunction with Earth Day.
About ESPN3
ESPN3 is ESPN's live multi-screen sports network, a destination that
delivers thousands of exclusive sports events annually. It is accessible
on computers, smartphones, tablets and connected devices to more than 99
million homes at no additional cost to fans who receive their high-speed
Internet connection or video subscription from an affiliated service
provider. The network is also available at no cost to approximately 21
million U.S. college students and U.S.-based military personnel via
computers, smartphones and tablets connected to on-campus educational and
on-base military broadband and Wi-Fi networks.
Longhorn Network Info
ESPN has a 20-year agreement to own and operate a year-round, 24-hour
network dedicated to Texas athletics in partnership with UT and IMG
College. Longhorn Network offers a variety of content, highlighted by more
than 175 exclusive events annually from 20 sports, original series and
studio shows, historical programming and academic and cultural happenings.
About the Houston Marathon Committee, Inc.
Established in 1972, the Houston Marathon Committee, Inc. (HMC), a Running
USA Founding Member, annually organizes the nation's premier winter
marathon, half-marathon, and 5K. Over 250,000 participants, volunteers and
spectators make Chevron Houston Marathon Race Day the largest single-day
sporting event in Houston. Race Weekend generates over $50 million in
economic impact for the region annually. In 2014, the Run For a Reason
Charity Program raised a record $2.6 million and the HMC retained Gold
Certification from the Council of Responsible Sport for industry-leading
sustainability initiatives. Host to 14 U.S. Half Marathon Championships
since 2005 and the 1992 women's Olympic Trials Marathon, the HMC conducted
the nationally-televised 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon, which featured
men and women competing on the same course simultaneously for the first
time, vying for the chance to represent Team USA at the 2012 Olympic Games.
For more information, visit www.chevronhoustonmarathon.com
or call 713.957.3453.
###
|
