CASE STUDY • ELITE SPORT
How Fixon Media Group Brought The
Maryborough Gift To A National Audience
The Maryborough Highland Games is Australia’s oldest professional running and cultural event. Held annually on New Year’s Day in Maryborough, Victoria, the carnival has been a fixture of Australian athletics since 1863, featuring some of the country’s best runners, including Olympians past and present, competing across more than 80 races for prize money that has grown year on year.
Fixon Media Group is the live broadcast partner for the Maryborough Highland Society, producing the full-day live broadcast of the carnival each year. What started as a first-time live stream for an event that had never explored broadcast before has become one of the most consistent and evolving live production relationships in Australian regional sport.
CLIENT
Maryborough Highland Society
YEAR
2023 - Present
LOCATION
Maryborough, Victoria
SECTOR
Sport
SERVICES
Live-Streaming
THE CHALLENGE
A carnival of this size deserved a broadcast to match.
The Maryborough Gift is one of the largest meetings on the Victorian Athletic League calendar. With $15,000 in prize money on offer for the men’s and women’s 120m gifts and a full day of competition spanning professional running, strongman events, pipe band performances, and the iconic Girl on the Drum spectacular, the carnival draws elite athletes, passionate fans, and a community that has celebrated it for over 160 years.
Despite its scale and significance, the Maryborough Gift had never explored live broadcast options beyond a traditional local radio call. For an event of this stature, that gap was significant. The Maryborough Highland Society wanted a digital presence that matched the carnival’s reputation, a broadcast that could reach an Australia-wide audience and grow year on year.
THE sOLUTION
TV-standard production for one of Australia's great sporting days.
We proposed a four-camera live broadcast solution covering all major events throughout the day. The camera configuration included a drone angle used for beauty shots and immersive coverage of distance races, a roaming camera for live finish-line interviews and reaction footage, and two fixed positions covering the main race straight and the broader carnival atmosphere.
Live commentary by VAL race caller Oliver Wurm was integrated into the broadcast from a dedicated commentary suite, giving viewers the in-venue experience from wherever they were watching.
Professional running presents a unique broadcast challenge, with up to 30 runners in a single race, each carrying their own handicap and colour-coded bib, viewers need to be able to follow the action without confusion. To solve this, we produced a suite of over 160 live graphics displayed throughout the day alongside race timers, ensuring every viewer had the context they needed to follow each race from start to finish.
At the conclusion of each carnival, a full highlights package is produced and published to YouTube, covering every broadcasted race from the day and giving the event an ongoing on-demand audience well beyond New Year’s Day.
LIVE-STREAMS PRODUCED
2024 LIVE-STREAM
2025 LIVE-STREAM
2026 LIVE-STREAM
THE RESULT
An ongoing relationship built on a growing broadcast.
Each year the broadcast has grown, in audience reach, in production quality, and in what it means for the carnival’s digital presence. The Maryborough Highland Games now reaches an Australia-wide viewing audience on New Year’s Day, with the highlights package extending that reach across the weeks that follow.
Our ongoing presence at the event has given the Maryborough Highland Society a broadcast partner who understands the carnival as well as anyone, the running order, the key races, the cultural moments, and the production decisions that make each year better than the last.
MOVING FORWARD
Building something year on year.
The best live broadcast relationships are the ones that compound. Each year we bring more knowledge of the event, a clearer understanding of what the audience responds to, and a more refined production plan. The Maryborough Highland Games is exactly that kind of relationship.
We look forward to continuing to grow the broadcast and the digital presence of one of Australia’s most beloved sporting and cultural traditions.
WORK WITH US
Ready to take your next event further?
Whether you need a one-off broadcast or an ongoing live production partner, start with a conversation.