Over 100 countries have already signed up to receive coverage of the 2006 Boat Race, sponsored by Xchanging and taking place on April 2nd at 4.35pm.

These include 54 European countries in 18 different languages and 50 countries in a pan-African package brokered for the Boat Race by BBC Worldwide. Negotiations are also moving apace in Asia and North America.

Meanwhile French TV Station FR2 has been busy filming in Oxford in the hope that Bastien Ripoll will become the first French oarsman ever to take part in the Boat Race.

A Frenchman, Francois de Rancourt, was the Cambridge cox in 1963 but there has never before been a French rower.

Full details of this year’s coverage worldwide will appear during the week of the Race in the "TV, Online and Radio" section of this website.