Portugal, June 21, 2004: Octagon CSI, UEFA’s European Football Championship™ agency for territories ex Europe (Africa, the Americas, Middle East and Oceania), is ensuring that fans in 109 territories see the best football Europe has to offer in this prestigious tournament. Octagon CSI is supplying English commentary for the World Feed and have employed the services of top UK commentators, Martin Tyler, Peter Brackley and Gary Bloom. The feeds are being relayed through Octagon’s broadcast facilities in London, which serves as a technical gateway for broadcasters accessing live matches via BT Tower. In addition to its World Feed contribution, Octagon CSI has venue coordinators at every match and is supporting 19 broadcasters in Portugal.
Due to the special requirements of the African continent, Octagon’s London facility has become home to the Lim Group throughout the tournament. The Lim Group is using Octagon’s technical and production staff and facilities to tailor UEFA EURO 2004™ match feeds to meet the needs of African markets. The addition of French commentary and sponsors graphics going to 26 African territories is a complex business but Barry Lambert, Lim spokesman, is delighted with Lim’s choice of television partner.
‘Broadcasting to Africa is fraught with difficulties, but Octagon has been extremely professional in their approach.’ said Lambert. ‘More importantly they have proved to be incredibly flexible, a quality that can not be underestimated when broadcasting to our territories.’
Hannah Aitchison, Octagon’s Head of Television Operations, is very pleased with the level of service that her team is providing. ‘Our highly skilled team of production managers has experience working on site at a wide variety of prestigious sporting events including the FA Cup Final and Cricket World Cup 2003 and is enjoying working alongside EBS, EBU and Dentsu towards a highly successful UEFA Euro2004,’ said Aitchison.
Octagon’s Production Unit is also providing technical support for UEFA’s DVD Video and sponsorship programmes. Three official video and DVD titles have been commissioned for retail by UEFA. On the sponsorship side, Octagon, upon request of UEFA, has sent production teams to Portugal to cover sponsor activities at the tournament, and the graphics department has been working closely with T-Mobile, MasterCard and BenQ, Official Partners of UEFA EURO 2004™ to enhance their brand exposure. Octagon’s CSI Head of Production, Fergus Garber, has been in regular contact with UEFA for over a year and is confident that the solid relationship between Octagon and UEFA has been successful to date.
‘An incredible amount of work has gone into the UEFA Octagon partnership on both sides, and now UEFA EURO 2004™ UEFA is underway and early results are very strong, Garber said. ‘It’s very gratifying to see all that effort paying off and looking good.’
Octagon is one of the world’s leading sports and entertainment event marketing companies with global expertise in consulting, athletes & personalities, event management, property representation, marketing solutions, licensing and merchandising, talent procurement and television rights and production. As part of The Interpublic Group (NYSE:IPG), one of the world’s leading organizations of advertising agencies and marketing services, Octagon employs more than 1,000 people in 60 offices around the world. For further information please visit: www.octagon.com.
For more details contact:
Fergus Garber t +44 (0)207 8944 4188