COOLANGATTA, Queensland, Australia (Wednesday, 7 December 2022) - The World Surf League (WSL) Asia Pacific (APAC) is proud to announce it will be continuing its partnership with Fox Sports for a fifteenth-straight year through the 2023 season.
Fox Sports, available on Foxtel and Kayo Sports, will once again get behind the WSL and its tours and competitions through major sports cross-promotion and integration into Fox Sports' programming on different shows and platforms. Similar to the 2022 season, Fox Sports will also produce a 2023 WSL Championship Tour (CT) preview show to coincide with the season launch in late January.
"Fox Sports Australia has such an awesome history of promoting and broadcasting World Surf League events from around the world, and we're stoked to see that history continue into the 2023 season," said WSL APAC President Andrew Stark. "2022 was the most viewed year of professional surfing globally and a lot of the attention that was garnered here in Australia was thanks to the support from Fox, and for that we'd like to thank them. We look forward to another year partnering with Fox Sports Australia and watching the relationship continue to grow and develop through what is sure to be another milestone year for the WSL."
Along with the live CT events and hour-long event recap for each tour stop, Kayo Sports will also be broadcasting Australian Challenger Series events live. Each Challenger Series event will also have an hour-long recap show played at the end of each event window. Sports streaming platform, Kayo Sports will also host a pop-up WSL channel to coincide with the season launching, continuing to grow the amount of WSL content delivered by Fox Sports year-on-year.
Foxtel Group Head of Content Acquisitions - Sport, Adam Howarth said: "2022 was one the best years in the history of professional surfing. From Kelly Slater winning at Pipeline to Steph Gilmore winning her 8th world title, the storylines were simply awesome. We love our partnership with the WSL and the way Fox Sports and the WSL have worked to develop the product over the last 15 years is something we are incredibly proud of. We can't wait to deliver the next chapter to our passionate subscriber base."
The first event of the 2023 WSL Championship Tour, the Billabong Pro Pipeline, will commence on January 29, 2023, and holds a competition window through February 10, 2023. Fans in Australia can tune-in to Fox Sports available on Foxtel and Kayo Sports. Keep an eye out for the popup surfing channel on Kayo and the season preview show to be played in late January.