WWE announced that it has established investor-oriented channels on the major social media networks, order including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The objective of this initiative, which is part of our global communications program, is to facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of WWE’s strategy, operations, performance and customers.

“Our perspective is that social media represents a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. We believe that effective communication with investors and analysts includes the use of social media that is focused on that community,” stated George Barrios, Chief Financial Officer.

To-date, WWE has effectively used social media to share our brands with consumers. With more than 72 million Facebook fans, 28 million Twitter followers, and more than one billion videos viewed on YouTube, WWE can be identified as one of the strongest commercial brands worldwide. This effort is intended to replicate such communication with the financial community.

Italy’s stadia has come under the microscope in recent months, and AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani has become the latest club official to criticise the state of the country’s soccer venues, stating Serie A risks falling further behind the rest of Europe through lack of development.

Galliani’s comments come after Cesena president Igor Campedelli last week called for government action to address the problem of Italy’s decaying stadia.

Juventus will break new ground for Italian football in September when it opens its new 41,000-seat stadium, the country’s first privately owned football venue.

However, the majority of Serie A teams still have to pay rental fees to city councils for the right to play in their stadia, impacting on their ability to drive matchday revenue and renovate their home arenas.

As a result of recent performances in European competition, Serie A has fallen behind England’s Premier League, Spain’s La Liga and Germany’s 1.Bundesliga in the UEFA co-efficients, and Galliani predicts that France’s new stadia development for Euro 2016 will lead to the country overtaking Italy.

“Thanks to the new stadiums being built for Euro 2016, I predict that the French will also overtake us,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “We could be competitive with equal factors and situations, but unfortunately that’s not the case.

Galliani insists that clubs “can’t do anything” to prevent it due to laws surrounding the development of new stadia.

“Spain has the advantage that they don’t have collective TV rights. Germany have overtaken us thanks to the wonderful new stadiums they built for the World Cup in 2006. It’s like theatres and restaurants. There are beautiful theatres and ugly ones; there are luxury restaurants and then pizzerias. But we can’t do anything. Without stadiums we can’t do anything and without a new law we can’t construct new stadiums. Even the politicians have understood that, but the design of the law has remained blocked between the two branches of parliament.”

IMG Media has been appointed by the United States Tennis Association (USTA) to act as the official television consultant to the US Open for a number of territories across the globe.

The division of IMG Worldwide replaces Lagardère as the USTA’s TV rights negotiations representative in Europe, cialis Australia, ed New Zealand, Asia (excluding Japan) and the Middle East.

The partnership covers the four-year period from 2013-16, with the US Open taking place at Flushing Meadows in New York every August-September.

Harlan Stone, chief business and marketing officer of the USTA, stated: “We selected IMG Media based on the breadth of experience and depth of relationships in key markets around the globe.”

The 2010 US Open received more than 40,000 hours of national and international television coverage over more than 180 countries.

The USTA has stated that it will work with Lagardère through to the end of this year on the current agreement as well as “a number of additional outside projects”.

Sir Philip Craven is expecting the London Paralympic Games to be a ‘tremendous success’.

In an exclusive interview with iSportconnect, clinic Sir Philip was looking for continued success for the Paralympics following the country reeling from a tremendous London Olympics.

“It can often prove frustrating being the little brother to the Olympic Games, canada order ” said Sir Philip.

Nevertheless, according to Sir Philip Craven MBE, President, International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the Paralympic Games are now positioned for sustained growth and are “seeing the fruit coming now off the tree.”

The Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games has proved to be a major catalyst for the increased popularity of the Paralympic Games. The daunting task both the IPC and LOCOG face is how to build on the momentum generated from what Sir Philip Craven described four years ago as ‘the greatest Paralympic Games ever”, but preparations have gone smoothly and all the small glitches have been stamped out.

“The way we have been able to partner LOCOG for the past six and a half years has really ensured that the Paralympic Games in London are going to be a tremendous success,” said Sir Philip.

“There have not been too many problems and six and a half years is a good period of time to iron any out and that is what has happened.”

Despite the colossal task put in front of LOCOG, the London 2012 Olympic Games seemed to overwhelm expectations and were undoubtedly a huge success. Sir Philip hopes for more of the same quintessential British enthusiasm during the Paralympics.

“I am looking for the British public and people from abroad to continue to fill up the Olympic and Paralympic Park and the venues. I want the same wonderful experiences that were present in the first part of August to continue into the middle of September.”

Despite his international responsibilities, the Brit swayed from the traditional diplomatic answers and offered a more patriotic prediction. He smiled: “Britain’s got an excellent record and were second in the medal table in Beijing so hopefully there will be gold medal winning performances for the fans to see.”

The London Paralympic Games begin tonight and end on September 9.

To read the entire interview, which covers a range of topics from broadcasting to partnerships to strategies, click on the link. http://bit.ly/SMfJ2b

Also check out Tim Reddish, Chairman British Paralympic Association video interview:

Part 1 – http://bit.ly/OJ5wks

Part 2 – http://bit.ly/MZgMeh

Why not also join our London 2012 Networking tool here>> and our Olympic E-Mag here>>

The Sun Belt Conference and XOS Digital, story Inc. today announced an exclusive agreement for XOS to provide technology enabled sponsor activation and digital network services.

The seven-year partnership was announced today by Sun Belt Conference Commissioner Karl Benson and XOS Digital’s CEO Chris McCleary.

XOS will launch and manage the Sun Belt Digital Network, enlist and manage the official corporate sponsors of the conference, and implement the XOS Integrated Sponsor Activation PlatformTM on Aug. 1, 2012, marking a first in collegiate sports marketing. The Sun Belt Digital Network will provide the Sun Belt community with video-centric offerings including an officially branded website, applications for mobile, tablet and Smart TV, an OnDemand Game Store, affiliate digital video players and live streaming of Sun Belt games and events.

The XOS Integrated Sponsor Activation Platform will provide Sun Belt corporate sponsors with the ability to enhance their investment by fully integrating their sponsorships across all elements of the Sun Belt Digital Network as well as the Sun Belt Television and Radio Broadcast Networks. The Integrated Sponsor Activation Platform will provide enhanced interaction with fans as well as comprehensive analytics on fan reach and demographics.

“This is an important step for the Sun Belt Conference as our partnership with XOS will result in a significant increase to our digital footprint,” said Karl Benson, Sun Belt Conference Commissioner. “This agreement provides all the necessary resources to connect our brand to our audience and it will help entice sponsors.”

The partnership between XOS and the Sun Belt Conference will enable the conference’s corporate sponsors to invest in a variety of multifaceted technologies for a broad reach among the Sun Belt fan base. And, for the first time within the collegiate sports industry, corporate brands will now have the ability to work through a single source to activate sponsorships across both digital and traditional marketing assets.

“Commissioner Benson and the Sun Belt are incredibly forward thinking,” McCleary said. “Sponsors are demanding integrated digital and conventional activation of their investment coupled with superior reporting on effectiveness – and the Sun Belt will deliver both.”

Last month, XOS also announced the Sun Belt Conference as the first in collegiate sports to use a multi-channel HD replay system for football. XOS Digital developed the system using the core multi-channel technology found within its Hurricane slow-motion instant replay system, which college teams use for in-venue live production.

Queensland, Australia will be host to the 2012 ICC U19 Cricket World Cup, Cricket Australia and Queensland government announced today.

The partnership between the International Cricket Council (ICC), CA, Queensland Cricket and Events Queensland will see Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Townsville hosting teams from around the globe in August next year.

Australia the defending champions will hope for a succession of wins on home soil.

It will be the second time the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup has been held in Australia, after the inaugural event in 1988, and will showcase the world’s best emerging players, broadcasting their talents around the globe to millions of  viewers in the Sub-continent, England, New Zealand, South Africa and many others via ESPN STAR Sports.

“The ICC U19 Cricket World Cup is the showcase event for best young cricketers in the world and is where the next Cameron White or Yuvraj Singh gets their first real taste of top-level international cricket,” Chief Executive Officer James Sutherland said.

Sutherland is very much looking forward to the event and is pleased with Events Queensland continued support.

“It was only a couple of years ago we saw Mitch Marsh captain the Australia Under-19 team to victory in New Zealand with talents such as Josh Hazlewood, Alister McDermott and Alex Keath alongside him.

“We are building towards hosting the senior ICC Cricket World Cup in 2015 and this tournament will play a big part in getting ready for that event,” he said.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said: “This event will deliver an economic shot in the arm to the host communities and showcase Queensland to the world – attracting 400 players and officials from 16 countries and generating an expected 7000 bed nights for the local tourism industry.

“In addition, it will be televised into the homes of cricket fans in more than 100 countries including in Asia, the UK and South Africa via ESPN STAR Sports.”

The 2012 tournament will be the ninth ICC U19 Cricket World Cup after the inaugural event was held in Australia in 1988.

 

The International Boxing Association (AIBA) have announced that the governing body for amateur boxing will make a major move into professional boxing.

A new programme, entitled AIBA Professional Boxing (APB), is to be launched in early 2013 and will feature both individual and national team bouts at national, continental and world levels.

It follows the AIBA run World Series of Boxing (WSB) competition which started last year and sees boxers compete without head guards, while being scored by three judges.

Like the WSB, the new APB will allow competitors to retain their Olympic eligibility despite boxing professionally.

C K Wu, the President of AIBA, said at a press conference: “Today, the AIBA Executive Committee has unanimously approved the creation of another revolutionary programme which is the AIBA Professional Boxing programme called APB.

“The main reasons to develop AIBA’s own professional boxing programme are as follows.

“First of all, I would like to change AIBA as the ultimate responsible body for the boxer’s entire boxing career including amateur and professional and would like to give more opportunities to all our boxers to compete and live in a better boxing world with a stable financial status and as respected role models for young generations.

“I would like to make of AIBA the true governing body to support all National Federations and grassroots including clubs by generating more revenues from the APB programme.

“I am also deeply determined to change the image and reputation of our sport with transparency, popularity and social contribution by taking the responsibility of managing the destinies of the sport of boxing in all forms.

“I am determined to launch professional boxing under the umbrella of AIBA so that we will be the true and respected leader of our sport, and not any other organisation.”

Wu is hoping to turn back decades of tradition where boxers turn professional after competing successfully at the Olympics.

The new professional competitions are due to start in 2013.

Sports communications consultancy Pitch has been appointed by Channel 4 to maximise media opportunities around its successful bid to broadcast the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

Among their responsibilities, see Pitch will provide PR support across the broadcaster’s coverage of the Paralympic Games and other Paralympic sport events, ed including the delivery of a communications campaign around the BT Paralympic World Cup in May and the ‘One Year to Go’ milestone.

Additionally, cialis Pitch will be tasked with raising awareness of Channel 4’s dedicated programming schedule focusing on disabled sport, including its regular series ‘That Paralympic Show’ and upcoming feature documentaries.

Jane Fletcher, controller of Press and Publicity at Channel 4, said: “Following the success of our bid to broadcast the London 2012 Paralympic Games, it was important for us to bring on board an agency with extensive sporting expertise to raise the profile of our commitment to Paralympic sport.

“With their knowledge of our brand and the sports media, Pitch is best placed to assist us in our aim to build a fan base for disabled sport and drive viewers to our coverage.”

Henry Chappell, CEO of Pitch, added: “The challenge for Channel 4 is to change perceptions of Paralympic sport among the sports media and the public and we are well placed to provide expert guidance and a creative strategy to achieve this.  

“Our experience in the sports arena makes us an ideal partner for Channel 4 to maximise opportunities around their broadcast rights and programming over the next 18 months.”