North One Television has been told it has lost the contract to cover the TT, which has been awarded instead to island-based Greenlight TV.

London-based TV production company North One informed staff last Friday that it was disappointed that it had been unsuccessful in its tender to produce coverage of the TT from 2018 to 2022.

It has requested a full explanation of the decision which it says will take at least two weeks.

The company has retained the contract for distribution.

North One has produced TV coverage of the TT Races since its original appointment ahead of the 2009 TT Races.

It took over from Greenlight TV, which has filmed the event for the past 13 years.North One’s initial contract for the exclusive rights for television production, sales and distribution was for five years.

The worldwide TT audience grew from 8.1 million in 2010 to 24.4 million viewers in 2013 in more than 130 countries. Its contract was awarded for a further two years in 2014 following a competitive tendering exercise by the then Department for Economic Development.

The contract was extended for a further year in 2017, while the department was dealing with the aftermath of the Vision Nine affair.

A new procurement process was launched but this time the contract was split into two parts - production and distribution.

The Department for Enterprise said it would not comment as the procurement process had not yet ended.

Greenlight TV director David Beynon said he too could not say anything as the procurement was still on-going.

We asked North One chief executive Neil Duncanson for a comment but he had not provided a response to us by the time the Examiner went to press.

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