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The agreement signed in New York on Friday 14th December by Luca Birindelli (right of picture), Chairman of the Challenger of Record Management (CORM), and Roger Williams (left of picture), Chief Executive Officer of OLN, will see nearly 500 hours of live television aired by American cable company Outdoor Life Network (OLN).

The challenger elimination series for the America's Cup, known as the Louis Vuitton Cup, will see 10 teams from seven nations do battle on the waters of the Hauraki Gulf in Auckland, New Zealand over four months between October 2002 and January 2003.

Among the teams entered are three American syndicates: Oracle Racing from San Francisco, headed by software mogul Larry Ellison, One World from Seattle headed by technology entrepreneurs Craig McCaw and Paul Allen, and Stars & Stripes from New York, headed by four times America's Cup winner Dennis Conner. From Europe there are teams representing Great Britain, France, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland and Italy (for more information see http://www.louisvuittoncup.com).

In the past only the later rounds of the Louis Vuitton Cup have been aired on TV in the United States. However with this agreement OLN subscribers will be able to watch every race day from the beginning of October 2002 right up until the Louis Vuitton Cup winner, the Challenger for the America's Cup, is determined in late January 2003.