Facebook secures streaming rights for Ironman Championship

Facebook has partnered with IRONMAN for unprecedented live coverage of the 2018 race season.

The social media company will stream a total of 16 races across three continents, including extensive coverage of the 2018 IRONMAN World Championship, which will also be available on NBC Sports for fans in the United States.

The live events will be hosted by IRONMAN World Champion and IRONMAN Hall of Famer Greg Welch, three-time IRONMAN Champion Michael Lovato, and three-time IRONMAN champion Dede Griesbauer.

There will also be a 20-episode live weekly show entitled ‘Ironman: 40 Years of Dreams,’ which will debut on Facebook Watch on July 5 and runs through to November 15.

IRONMAN will incorporate viewer interaction through real-time polls, fan engagement and discussion, and user-generated content from spectators on the course.

Matthieu van Veen, chief revenue officer for IRONMAN, said: “We are confident that our lineup of programming will have broad global appeal to our loyal athletes and fans and will introduce new athletes to our community.”

Live race coverage of the following events as well as live weekly episodes and a range of on-demand programming will be available in the United States on Facebook Watch and globally via the IRONMAN Now Facebook page.

IRONMAN France Nice, France (June 24)

IRONMAN Austria Klagenfurt, Austria (July 1)

Mainova IRONMAN European Championship Frankfurt, Germany (July 8)

IRONMAN UK Bolton, England (July 15)

IRONMAN Lake Placid Lake Placid, New York (July 22)

IRONMAN Hamburg Hamburg, Germany (July 29)

IRONMAN Maastricht Maastricht, The Netherlands (Aug 5)

Subaru IRONMAN Mont Tremblant presented by Sportium Mont Tremblant, Canada (Aug 19)

IRONMAN 70.3 Zell am See-Kaprun Zell am See-Kaprun, Austria (Aug 26)

IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship Nelson Mandalay Bay, South Africa (Sept 1-2)

IRONMAN Wisconsin Madison, Wisconsin (Sept 9)

IRONMAN Italy Emilia Romagna Cervia, Italy (Sept 22)