The global television broadcast of the Webtel.mobi Intercontinental Challenge by AP Corporate Services, on behalf of Webtel.mobi, was the most successful in the service's history.

The Webtel.mobi Intercontinental Challenge was the first attempted crossing by a man harnessed to a jet wing between the continents of Africa and Europe - a distance of 40km over some of the most dangerous air and sea currents in the world.

AP Corporate Services was appointed by Webtel.mobi to provide an integrated production and distribution solution for the project - not an easy thing when the event was held in two countries with exhaustive permission processes and logistical issues to work through.

The whole event was filmed in high-definition (HD), with AP Corporate Services working together with outside broadcast facilities providers Alfacam and Eurolinx, who handled the Cineflex camera, broadcast camera and wireless - and Wim Robberechts, who provided RF signals from their own Cineflex helicopter.

AP provided the cameras and crewing in Morocco and Spain, and also produced video news releases of preparations the day prior, and then on the jump day itself – as well as providing a live uplink facility from Spain.

As per Webtel.mobi’s brief, the feed was then distributed worldwide via AP Television News' Global Video Wire as a free live broadcast, and also replayed as a free video news release (VNR) for newsrooms who missed the live feed.

"This was a first for us", said Bart Stobart, Manager of AP Corporate Services. "Being able to offer free and unrestricted live feed worldwide for such a dramatic event added an element of unpredictability and excitement to the mix. The broadcast newsrooms taking the live feed didn't know whether the Webtel.mobi Intercontinental Challenge would succeed, so, whatever the outcome, their audience would see it first".

"Webtel.mobi enlisted the help over fifty companies - each a world-leader in its field - to turn the Intercontinental Challenge into a reality", said Stuart Sterzel, Chief Executive Officer of Webtel.mobi. "When the time came to entrust an organisation with the live global broadcast and the VNR production and distribution, there was for us no question that the company to appoint was AP. Their professionalism, capabilities and experience in this specialist industry are world-renowned and unmatched".

According to usage monitoring conducted by AP after the event, the successful jump was broadcast live, or recorded and replayed later in the day by the major news channels, CNN International, BBC World and Sky News; on all the main US networks NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox and their affiliates; on all five main terrestrial UK television channels; and by hundreds of other news broadcasters in countries around the globe.

AP Corporate Services' post-event assessment is that the potential viewership of the Webtel.mobi Intercontinental Challenge could well have included up to half of the world's population on the day of broadcast.

For further information, please contact:

Bart Stobart
Email: Bart Stobart
Tel: + 44 207 482 7454
Fax: +44 20 7413 8312

APTN Corporate Services provides television crews, editing facilities and producers anywhere in the world for the production of VNRs. Client's edited VNRs originate from domestic or international locations via portable or fixed facility uplink. APTN's news experience enables Corporate Services to quickly and effectively produce VNRs or b'roll packages.