GT Academy (competition)
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| Sport | Gran Turismo |
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| Established | 2008 |
GT Academy is a television programme run by Nissan and PlayStation, which provides an alternative route into mainstream Motorsport. GT Academy provides Gran Turismo gamers the chance to go from virtual to reality, from their PlayStation to a real-life professional racing career with Nissan.
The Nissan PlayStation GT Academy (also The NISMO PlayStation GT Academy or GT Academy, GT abbreviated from Gran Turismo) is an international virtual-to-reality contest that allows the video gamers of the Gran Turismo game the opportunity to become a real-world car racing driver.
Created in June 2008 in collaboration between Nissan Europe, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Polyphony Digital. , GT Academy provides an alternative route into professional motor racing for people.
The contest comprises different phases. Players begin with virtual racing on PlayStation's Gran Turismo, and progress to National Finals before the winners of each region compete for real in Nissan cars at Race Camp. This experience involves week-long testing and challenges which can result in elimination. Since 2008, Race Camp has been based at Silverstone Circuit, UK, where the title of GT Academy Winner is awarded to whoever demonstrates the greatest potential to make the switch from Gran Turismo gamer to real racer.
Competition winners are rewarded with a place in Nissan's Driver Development Programme as well as entry into an international race or series with Nissan.
GT Academy was originally run only across Europe. The sixth season in 2014 grew to include separate competitions for Europe (France, Italy, UK, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Russia, Sweden, Poland and Czech Republic), Germany, North America (USA and Canada) and an International group (Australia, India, Middle East, Mexico and Thailand).
Nissan's Driver Development Programme is included to try and assist GT Academy Winners to develop the skills needed to compete against those with years of car racing experience. Over six seasons, more than five million people have entered GT Academy via PlayStation 3. GT Academy Winners who qualify to compete in the international race or series are also considered for a potential future racing career with Nissan as a NISMO Athlete.
Since 2008, each season of GT Academy has followed with a reality entertainment TV series which has been broadcast in over 160 countries. The series is localised for TV channels in different markets, which has included ITV4 (UK), Discovery (Spain) Rossiye 2 (Russia), and Europe's largest broadcast network RTL in Germany and Holland. In 2013, the GT Academy TV programs recorded a global TV audience of over 100 million . In the North American GT Academy competitions, the TV series is hosted by a celebrity, which began with TV personality Kristin Adams in 2011 and continued with former NFL star Dhani Jones since 2012 on Spike TV.
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