Lagardère Sports to serve as host broadcaster for five major events this November
Lagardère Sports today (9 October) announced that it has been appointed as the host broadcaster for a total of five events across the globe this November. The Lagardère Sports Media Production team will not only use their expertise to produce the live feed for each event, but will also create original, exciting and innovative programming across a range of platforms.
The International Weightlifting Federation World Championships, taking place in Houston, Texas, USA, from the 20-28 November will see nearly 800 athletes from over 90 countries come together to compete in an event that will also act as a qualifier for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. As the host broadcaster, Lagardère Sports will produce the world broadcast feed of the tournament.
Dennis Spencer, executive vice-president of media, Lagardère Sports, said: “Our US office is working closely with the Harris-County Houston Sports Authority to maximise the impact of the event given it is the first World Championships in the sport for nearly 40 years in the States. The appointment for host broadcasting and global TV exposure was a natural extension of services.”
Using their knowledge of modern media technologies and helping the International Wushu Federation broaden the communication of their sport, Lagardère Sports will also act as Host Broadcaster for the World Wushu Championships 2015. Taking place in Jakarta, Indonesia from the 14-18 November, the martial arts sports competition has a growing fan base and has seen endorsements from Jet Li as well as a host of Hollywood inspired movies. Lagardère Sports will kick off a live web feed for the event and broadcast 90 hours of content, from three fields of play simultaneously. Lagardère Sports will also provide a dedicated OTT video platform named Wushu-TV for the live event coverage and will create additional content for fans available alongside the live feed.
Yu Zaiqing, president of the International Wushu Federation, said: “We’re very excited about working with Lagardère Sports on the creation of our multi-faceted digital platform that will give us the potential to reach serious wushu fans and new viewers around the globe with our Wushu TV channel. Streaming the 13th World Wushu Championships live from Jakarta will allow people everywhere to share the excitement of our premier signature event as it unfolds. As we hopefully look forward to being an Olympic sport in the next decade, we’re pleased that Lagardère will help us develop these essential digital strategies to grow wushu faster and further professionalise the outreach and marketing of IWUF.”
The agency has been re-appointed as the host broadcaster for the Race of Champions, taking place in the London Olympic Stadium, Stratford from the 20-21 November. The event brings together the world’s greatest drivers from different motorsports disciplines with a backdrop of music and intense crowd atmosphere. Lagardère Sports will produce the live feed on behalf of the organisers for Sky Sports, Eurosport (Pan Europe) and ARD/ZDF amongst a number of other channels. Also secured are the media distribution rights and live streaming platforms. This will be the fourth year of a continuing cooperation between the Race of Champions and Lagardère Sports.
Hit the road
Using a range production tools including helicopters and motorbike cameras, Lagardère Sports will be the host broadcaster for the UCI Tour of Taihu Lake cycling road race, taking place in the Jiangsu Province, China, from October 31-November 8. This is the first time a nine-day cycling road race has daily live TV broadcast in China with nine domestic TV channels including LETV confirmed. Jiangsu TV is the local production partner providing a range of technical facilities. Lagardère Sports has arranged live broadcast in over 100 countries internationally with key broadcasters including ESPN Latin America, Fox Africa, Eurosport and Zuku. The agency will use their network of cycling production specialists, who have worked on events such as Tour de France, as well as China’s best production and commentary talent to expand the profile of the event for future years.
For the second year and in an appointment that will last until 2017, Lagardère Sports will also be the host broadcaster of the prestigious Scottish Open Badminton Grand Prix in the Emirates Arena, Glasgow, which will also play host to the 2017 BWF World Badminton Championships.
To manage and expand the media production business development, Lagardère Sports has appointed Johan Hedblom as director, media solutions, responsible for running the Lagardère Sports Digital Media Centre in Europe. Guy Horne has been promoted to senior director media – production and will spearhead business development including host broadcasting, production and digital media services to major sports events organisers and federations.
Peter Angell, senior vice-president, media – production at Lagardère Sports said, “Following a busy summer delivering ITU’s World Triathlon Series as well as a number of other world-class events including WTA and ATP Tennis, marathons and cycling races, we are delighted to expand our production business with new clients on three continents. The fact that all these events will take place during the same month demonstrates the wide-ranging expertise, resourcefulness and depth of the Lagardère Sports production team across our offices in London, New York, Stockholm, Lausanne and Singapore.”