Eurosport renews deals for two tennis grand slams

The Eurosport Group has extended its long term partnerships with the French and the US Opens following the signing of two new deals.

Brokered by MP & Silva, the French Open deal secures coverage on Eurosport for three years, from 2012 through 2014. The US Open agreement, finalized through the agency of IMG Media, sees the US grand slam on Eurosport through to 2017.

The renewed deals for both events cover live pan-European rights, across all platforms. The two events will be covered on TV channels Eurosport and Eurosport 2, also available on PC and on mobile devices via Eurosport Player, the Eurosport Group’s online subscription service. Subscribers to Eurosport Player will also have access to the live multi-court service.

Eurosport Group enjoys trusted and long-standing relationships with the Fédération Française de Tennis (FFT) and the United States Tennis Association (USTA), making the pan-European broadcaster the natural choice for these federations. They will benefit from Eurosport’s huge multimedia exposure across Europe, as well as consistent quality coverage for their prestigious events.

Geraldine Filiol, Deputy Managing Director, in charge of acquisitions for the Eurosport Group said: “We are delighted to extend our partnership with these two premium tennis properties, with whom we have built strong relationships over the years. These deals ensure that Eurosport remains a major partner of the Tennis world in Europe. Tennis Grand Slams are indeed a perfect fit for our Group’s multi-screen strategy: not only Eurosport delivers these events anywhere and on any device, but we also ensure that all this terrific content is made available to fans via Eurosport Player multi-court service.”

Michel Grach, Director of Media and Sponsorship at the French Tennis Federation confirms: “The FFT has enjoyed a privileged partnership with Eurosport for over twenty years, and we are pleased to renew this healthy collaboration for a further three years. The world’s premier clay event will be available to more fans throughout Europe than ever before, in line with our ambitious distribution strategy to enhance and increase multi-screen and multi-lingual coverage of Roland Garros.”

“We are thrilled to continue our partnership with Eurosport, and as a leader in sports production and sports distribution, they are the right partner for the US Open,” said Gordon Smith, USTA Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer. “With their market penetration, we will be able to bring the US Open to more fans than ever before.”

With these two new contracts, Eurosport has now secured long term commitment to all its Grand Slam portfolio, after last year’s multi-year contract signed with the Australian Open. Again in 2012, Eurosport will be offering tennis fans over 1,200 hours live, adding the WTA season and selected ATP events to its three Grand Slams.

France 24 reports from Binnish on the ground with the Free Syrian Army

Two FRANCE 24 reporters, Adel Gastel and Karim Hakiki, entered Syria undercover. They made their way to Binnish, the northern town that is now under the control of the Free Syrian Army, resisting the regime’s forces.

With the Syrian authorities’ harsh crackdown on a citizen uprising that began last March, foreign journalists have been mostly unable to work in the country. The death of French cameraman Gilles Jacquier in the restive city of Homs earlier this year came as a harsh reminder of the risks run by those who have tried to report on the conflict between President Bashar al-Assad’s government and protesters.

France 24 broadcasts its reports from 29 January onwards.

euronews opens its Moscow office

Ten years after the launch of its Russian edition and in line with its international news ‘hub’ strategy, euronews is opening a permanent office in Moscow and has appointed Alexander Shashkov as news correspondent.

Continuing its expansion with the aim providing coverage from the world’s key news areas and following the opening of its offices in Brussels, London, Doha, Cairo and Paris, euronews has announced the opening of its Moscow office. The channel is set to open more offices over the coming weeks.

Euronews’ strategy in Russia is twofold: to improve its news service by being at the heart of Russian current affairs in a year that will be particularly eventful, and to provide unprecedented editorial content devoted to the challenges of the world’s geographically largest country and its 143 million inhabitants.

With these objectives in mind, Lucian Sârb, Director of News and Programmes, has entrusted this office to Alexander Shakov. With the imminent presidential elections in March 2012, Shashkov’s mission will be to follow political and economic affairs closely, paying particular attention to the events that have an impact on international news.

Lucian Sârb noted: “Since Alexander’s arrival in 2003, euronews has really benefitted from his experience and his contribution to the editorial team. I am delighted that he has agreed to open our Moscow office. Alexander will provide insight in the field, which is a great asset, combined with his understanding of European and international affairs related to Russia.”

Alexander Shashkov, trilingual journalist (Russian, English, French), was born in Moscow in 1957. He began his career in 1982 at Gostelradio (State television and radio station in the former USSR) in the French news department, and then in the international news department where he was special correspondent. In 1991, he helped to create RTR, Russia’s national television and radio station. In 1994, he joined the channel NTV, one of Russia’s first private channels, which was bought by Gazprom in 2001.

In 2003 he joined euronews as a journalist for the Russian edition. Alexander studied Journalism at the University of Moscow.

Alexander SHASHKOV, alexander.shashkov@euronews.net

AIB international media awards – the AIBs

Eurosport, OASYS, RTG TV and Vizrt are the sponsors of
the AIB’s international media excellence awards in 2011.

The AIB’s Awards
gala
took place on 9 November 2011 in London, with a presentation of AIB Media Awards in 19 categories. Over 165 senior executives, producers and journalists from media organisations around the world attended the AIB Awards gala in LSO St Luke’s – to network, to be inspired, to exchange information, to celebrate success, to witness great programmes, great technology, and meet the human faces behind the finished product. The host for the evening was Annabel Croft, Eurosport presenter and former tennis champion, and the two special guests “in conversation” were Sarina Arnold, international model and ambassador for the children’s charity AWD, and Swiss film maker Helen Stehli Pfister.

People’s Choice

The AIBs People’s Choice Award in 2011 was hosted on Yahoo! Maktoob, harnessing the site’s enormous reach of more than 55m unique visitors across the MENA region.
This year’s topic for the People’s Choice award was “Best Coverage of Democracy
Uprisings” highlighting the impact that traditional and social broadcasting has
had in enabling the movements for change.
A short list of the six best entries was selected which online users from
across the world could view and vote on via Yahoo! Maktoob.