Zug, Switzerland / Nanjing, China, 22 August 2014 – For the II Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China, which started on Saturday 16 August 2014 and will run through until 28 August, broadcast agreements for 21 territories in Sub-Saharan Africa have been closed. In a collaborative approach, led by Infront Sports & Media and supported with operations by the French-based sports event and television agency TV Media Sport (TVMS), the media rights in place secure significant coverage of the event on television screens across the region.
The exposure is a result of Infront’s media rights agreement with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which intends to significantly expand the reach of the Olympic events on the African continent. For the current youth event, hundreds African athletes are participating across the majority of disciplines – underlining the significance of the event for the region. Athletes from the African continent had already shined in the first edition in Singapore 2010.
Unprecedented event coverage in Africa
The programming offered to broadcasters includes a daily thirty minute highlight programme focusing particularly on the African athletes, together with best moments of the day as well as full live coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies. Overall, 222 events across all 28 disciplines will be featured. All programmes are provided with commentary in English, French and Portuguese with broadcasters able to access the feed.
National and pan-regional partners
Besides national broadcast partners, a pan-regional agreement has been closed with TV5 Monde Africa. The long-term collaboration also extends to the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio, with the broadcaster committed to steadily providing Olympic coverage to sports fans across the continent.
Infront’s media rights agreement with the IOC is valid for the period of 2014 to 2016 and covers exclusive free-to-air television and radio rights in Sub-Saharan Africa, alongside non-exclusive internet and mobile rights. The Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games were a strong initial milestone for the presence of Olympic sports in Africa as an unprecedented scale and depth of broadcast coverage was achieved. Agreements were sealed with 30 free to air national networks as well as TV5 Monde Africa broadcasting all across Sub-Saharan Africa.
About Infront Sports & Media
Infront Sports & Media is the most respected sports marketing company in the world, managing a comprehensive portfolio of top properties. Led by President & CEO Philippe Blatter, Infront covers all aspects of successful sporting events – including distribution of media rights, sponsorship, media production and event operation – and has won a reputation for its high standards of delivery. As the number one player in winter sport and with a leading role in football and summer sports, Infront enjoys long-lasting partnerships with 130 rights-holders and hundreds of sponsors and media companies. Headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, Infront has a team of experienced staff working from 25 offices across 12 countries, delivering 3,400 event days of top class sport around the world every year.
About TV Media Sport
TV Media Sport is an international sports marketing company, dealing with media rights and event management, specialised in the African continent. TV Media Sport, through its unique network of local partners, is recognised as a major operator with strong and credible relay in all regions of the African continent. Its philosophy is to bring prestigious worldwide sporting events to Africa and to bring local events out of Africa.
For further information, please contact:
Lydia Charial Kaplan
Tel: +33 1 41 10 06 72