European Union supports Cinfo in automatic TV sports production

Cinfo has received the official notification of 100% approval for its project ‘Tiivii: Smart Automatic TV production for everyone’. The project was submitted to the European EIC Accelerator call. The EIC Accelerator is based on the Phase II SME Instrument and innovatively provides support in the form of blended funding (combining grant and capital).

The EIC Accelerator scheme supports ‘small and medium-sized, high-potential innovative companies that wish to develop and market new products, services and business models that can drive economic growth and shape new markets or disrupt existing ones in Europe and all over the world’. 21 companies such as Cinfo have finally been selected out of 1,849 companies listed as the most promising in the EU. 180 companies were finalists.

The EU has valued that ‘Cinfo’s innovation is advanced and disruptive, it could have many applications and it takes full advantage of AI and 5G technologies; therefore, the timing is correct. It has the potential to create a new global marketplace, which includes communities around sports and new business models for sports clubs.’

The EIC Accelerator committee has approved a combined investment of direct and capital support that means a takeover of around 20% of Cinfo (pending legal and financial procedures) and in which they could be incorporated, by mutual agreement with Cinfo and the ‘EIC Fund’, additional investors who want to commit to the project.

The project will take 36 months and, according to it, Cinfo will expand in at least nine countries and will cover a total of 14,000 sports facilities, operating under the B2B and B2C business models, since Cinfo will launch its own sports OTT under the Tiivii brand. Cinfo is already operating in Spain, Mexico, Japan and Switzerland.

The investment in R&D will be carried out mainly at Cinfo’s headquarters in A Coruña and will have CITIC of the University of A Coruña as an outstanding partner