Zug, Switzerland / Milan, Italy, 22 May 2007 – It is now eight months since Infront Sports & Media acquired the Milan-based sports marketing agency, Media Partners. The company is now taking another important step towards the full integration in the Infront Group. From today, it will be called Infront Italy and is being re-branded to conform with the Infront corporate identity.

MP Web, the new media company of the Media Partners Group will also be re-launched formally as Infront Advanced Media Solutions and function as the Group’s dedicated competence centre for the production and distribution of new media sports rights.
 
An eight month’s success story
Looking back on the past eight months, Infront and Infront Italy have successfully delivered the 2006/07 season of FIS World Cup events – the group now controls most of the events in annual FIS World Cup calendar.

The collaboration is also proving successful in the area of broadcast production. Since being acquired by Infront, Media Partners successfully produced the FIS Ski Alpine World Cup final, which took place in Lenzerheide, Switzerland in March 2007, entirely in HD quality – a first in the history of Ski World Cup races. The nine races in five different disciplines were cover by 21 HD cameras per race. This expertise fits very well with the experience of Infront’s world-leading host broadcast company, HBS.

Together with its new Italian operation the Infront Group introduced another exciting and innovative service focused in the area of new media. Infront Advanced Media Solutions, formerly MP Web, has set up Infront’s in-house IP broadcast platform to complement the Group’s service offering and to exploit existing media rights more effectively to a wider and more discerning viewing audience. The production and post-production facilities are located in Milan and are positioned as one-stop-shop for producing, delivering, protecting and billing new media content, enabling clients to globally expose their events.
 
As its first successful projects, the company produced dedicated online broadcast services for both the 2007 IIHF World Championships and the Euroleague Basketball Final Four. It will also continue to provide the official FIS Ski World Cup magazine programme, a variety of new media services for the leading Italian football teams, as well as Snowtime Channel (http://www.snowtime.com/) – a branded block of programmes and footage dedicated to winter sports.
 
More and better services for clients
Looking forward to the rest of the year, Infront will be introducing a new marketing concept for the FIS World Cup for the 2007/08 season, since the group now controls more than 80% of the rights to this event. This makes it viable to introduce comprehensive marketing packages which are more attractive to clients. It also makes it possible to promote a consistent, high quality “look and feel” to the numerous FIS events, so that they offer an extended platform for brand exposure.
 
“I am very happy to welcome Infront Italy as a new member of the Infront family. The re-naming of Media Partners is an important step within the integration process and it aims at further strengthen Infront as one of the world’s most respected sports marketing brands,” said Philippe Blatter, President & CEO of Infront Sports & Media. He added: “The two companies complement each other very welI and we are already seeing the benefit of synergies both for the company and its clients. I am convinced that Infront Italy will have a flying start under its new name.”
 
Marco Bogarelli, Media Partners’ former CEO and President, now Member of the Infront Board, said: “In only eight months time we achieved a lot and it has been proven that a joint operation will open the door to many new opportunities for our clients and our staff. We are very excited about the future and proud to bear the Infront brand on our business cards and door plates.”

The acquisition of Media Partners is part of Infront’s long-term strategy to build on its strengths in areas such as winter sports, host broadcast production and new media rights, to become the market leader in key sectors.

After the purchase of Media Partners in October 2006 and the considerable investment in the Romebases FGSPORT Group, promoter of the FIM Superbike World Championship, Infront now has two operations in Italy, one of Europe’s most important sports markets.

In October 2007, the Infront Group, including Infront Italy and FGSPORT will share a joint stand at Sportel Monaco for the first time.