International sports media agency MP & Silva have announced a three-year partnership with the Badminton Asian Confederation for the exclusive worldwide media rights for its calendar of events including the region’s premium tournament. 

The rights from 2014-16 consist of all media rights and devices including broadband and internet. 

Badminton Asian Confederation President Dato’ Sri Mohd Nadzmi Bin Mohd Salleh, commented abourt the deal: “This is an important stepping stone to elevate the BAC’s events to a new level of viewership as well as open new opportunities for marketing and commercial growth.”

MP & Silva CEO Peter Hutton, added: ” We are very pleased with this new partnership with the BAC as we strongly believe it has potential for future growth.”   

Whycliffe ‘Dave’ Cameron has been elected president of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).

He beat the incumbent Julian Hunte 7-5 during the board’s annual general meeting in Barbados. Cameron’s running mate, Emmanuel Nanthan of Dominica, is the new vice-president; he beat Barbados Cricket Association president Joel Garner 8-4 in the election.

Cameron, 42, was nominated by the Jamaica Cricket Association and seconded by the Windward Cricket Board. He has been a WICB director since 2002 and served as vice-president during Hunte’s tenure as president, which began in 2007.

“It was a long process and I travelled the length and breadth of the Caribbean, from Kingston, Jamaica to Georgetown, Guyana to be able to address the concerns of our stakeholders,” Cameron said after his election. “As we take over the reins of the WICB, we assume responsibility with very lofty goals in our minds and the understanding of the reason we are here and what everybody in the region is looking forward to us being able to accomplish.

“In my presentations to the territorial boards, I spoke about building on our immense talent, increasing the revenues in the sport and, above all, uniting the region through the game of cricket. We must find creative ways of dealing with the challenges that will confront us from time to time.” 

Nanthan joined Cameron in thanking outgoing president Hunte for his services to West Indies cricket over the last six years. “He is my friend and has been for a number of years,” Nanthan said of Hunte. “He is to me a hero, coming from the Windward Islands, and I am proud of the way he presided over the WICB during a difficult time and now the baton has been passed on.

After announcing a campaign to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships at the Olympic Stadium, London is to face serious competition from Doha after the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) confirmed today that they are planning to bid for the event. 

Qatar is targeting another major sporting event to help raise their profile, having already upset the odds and been awarded the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Doha’s bid is set to prove financially attractive to the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) as it promises to offer a series of development programmes.

The QOC released a statement, reading: “The main platform of the bid is to promote the sport around the world and help the IAAF develop athletics in new regions including the Gulf region, the Middle East and into Central Asia.

“Should Qatar be awarded the event, we will work in full cooperation with the IAAF and other member federations to share best practice in athletics and jointly create development programmes, which will increase and encourage more participation and even more attention for Athletics as a sport.”

Hosting the World Championships would build on last year’s successful World Indoor Championships and Doha is also part of the Diamond League series, which was launched last year by the IAAF.

One factor against Doha’s bid for the World Athletics Championships may be that the 2015 event has already been awarded to Beijing and Daegu in South Korea is due to host this year’s Championships and the IAAF may not want to host the event three out of four times in an Asian country.

The IAAF is due to make a decision on which city to award the Championships to at a meeting in Monte Carlo in November.

The International Handball Federation (IHF) has announced today that beINSports has become their new TV partner. 

beINSports, an affiliate of Al Jazeera Media Network, will showcase the upcoming Men’s and Women’s Handball World Championships according to the agreement concluded by representatives of both parties at the IHF Head Office on Thursday 20 February 2014.

The new TV rights contract is valid for the next two Men’s and Women’s World Championships in 2015 (Qatar and Denmark) and 2017 (France and Germany) and also includes the TV production for those events.

The deal succeeds the deal with former TV rights partner UFA Sports.

IHF President Dr Hassan Moustafa, commented: “I hope we will reach all handball enthusiasts worldwide with this new partnership in order to further develop our sport. I have some ideas and they have some ideas, and we have to see together how we can promote our sport. In four years we will evaluate where we are and which benefits we could take from this partnership.”

Al Khelaifi, General Manager of beINSports, was also very satisfied with the conclusion of the agreement: “We love handball. It is a very popular sport and we can work more international now. Handball is very important for our network. So we try to promote it. Handball is fantastic and we want to be part of the success of the IHF. We are proud that beINSports is the new home of handball.”

WWE announced the appointment of Gerrit Meier as Executive Vice President (EVP) of International.

Meier will report directly to WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon.

As the head of the International division, ailment Meier will be a key member of WWE’s senior management team. He will be responsible for growing WWE’s brand and business outside of the U.S. with the primary focus on expanding the company’s international television distribution agreements. Meier will also manage the continued advancement of WWE’s international licensing, stuff live events, sale cheap digital and publishing operations.

Meier brings nearly 20 years of experience helping content and distribution companies grow on a global basis within the context of rapidly changing consumer behavior and a quickly evolving technical/digital paradigm. As a seasoned media executive, he has held senior leadership positions and expanded the international footprint of several well-known companies, including Spotify, Clear Channel and Bertelsmann.

Prior to joining WWE, Meier was Spotify’s Global General Manager for Distribution and Partnerships where he successfully forged new partnerships with blue chip brands like Coca-Cola, Yahoo, Deutsche Telekom and Target. He also helped lead industry change for Clear Channel Media and Entertainment through the creation of the iHeartRadio brand, products and digital ad-network.

Meier began his career within Accenture/Andersen Consulting’s Strategic Services Practice, and subsequent to that, worked several years for EMI and BMG. He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School, and his undergraduate degree in International Business Administration from the European Business School London, U.K.

Soccerex has announced that Giuliano Giorgetti, Head of Web and New Media at AC Milan and Lewis Wiltshire, Head of Sport at Twitter UK, will be speaking on the hot topic of social media in football, at the Soccerex European Forum, 10-11 April, Manchester.

Social media, and in particular Twitter, have never been more popular in sport than they are today. The 2012 European Championships and 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games meant that seven out of the UK’s ten most tweeted about moments in 2012 were sports related. Football has also seen a huge surge in the number of clubs and players using the medium to engage with their fans and sometimes creating controversial situations when expressing their personal views on the game. Highlighting the importance of the medium, Lewis Wiltshire will give a presentation on the best practice of Twitter in the football industry.

The use of social media as platforms to engage with fans and increase a club’s global reach is an important part of a club’s communication strategy. The next steps for clubs in 2013 are monetising these platforms and creating new revenue streams through the millions of fans that use them. Through a series of presentations and discussions, Giuliano, along with other club representatives, will discuss the various approaches they are taking to achieve this monetisation.

As Head of Web and New Media at AC Milan, Giuliano is responsible for AC Milan’s social media strategy, creating engaging content for the club’s fans, which include almost 900,000 international followers on Twitter and over 14 million fans on Facebook, as well organising special projects and events dedicated to the social media environment.

Speaking on his participation, Giuliano Giorgetti said:

“The topic of social media and especially twitter is extremely relevant in European football at the moment and will shape the future of how clubs, fans and sponsors engage with one another. I look forward to speaking on these issues at the Forum, which is undoubtedly the most influential football business event in Europe.”

For further information about this event please call +44 (0)208 987 5522 or visit www.soccerex.com/europe.

The bid of French city Annecy to host the 2018 Winter Olympics has received a public sector funding boost from the Caisse des Depots after the financial institution, buy order which acts on behalf of central and local governments in France, medical pledged US$2.09m in support, viagra and also the French National Olympic and Sport Committee.

The Caisse des Depots will support Annecy 2018 financially and operationally through the final phase of the bid’s campaign, with the International Olympic Committee scheduled to decide on July 6 whether Annecy, PyeongChang in South Korea or Munich in Germany should stage the Games.

The deal represents a further funding boost for the bids CEO Charles Beigbeder, who was installed in January as a replacement to Edgar Grospiron who resigned following a dispute over a perceived lack of financial support for the event.

The financial institution’s CEO, Augustin de Romanet stated: “This partnership is an illustration of the Caisse des Depots’ drive to provide effective and sustainable support for ambitious projects. In addition to providing funding and additional staff, our support takes the shape of engineering know-how, especially in the area of protecting the local environment and its heritage through sustainable development, one of our group’s core strategies.”

French Sports Minister Chantal Jouanno added: “Annecy 2018 is a project for the future. The Caisse des Depots, tasked with serving the public interest and supporting sustainable development in our regions, is a natural partner for this bid. Its commitment has made a major contribution to the new dynamic driving the bid since January. Each time a major group joins forces with us, we send a strong signal to the International Olympic Committee.”

ESPN will expand its TV and digital coverage of the 2014 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships on March 20-22 by televising all six sessions and carrying every match on ESPN3, denture both for the first time.

ESPN will televise the semifinals and championship finals whileESPNU willair the preliminary sessionsand medal round.The entire tournament will be available on WatchESPN.

The tournament from Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Okla., will begin Thursday, March 20, with the first and second sessions– never before televised – on ESPNU. ESPN3’s individual mat feeds will allow fans to watch every match, including the wrestle-back bracket, accompanied by live commentary throughout the tournament. Additionally, for computer users, ESPN3 will once again offer multi-mat simultaneous viewing which allows fans to watch up to four different mats at one time.

“We’ve seen significant audience growth in our NCAA Wrestling Championships coverage over the last few years which reflects the insatiable appetite wrestling fans have for live competition,” said Brent Colborne, ESPN director of programming and acquisitions. “The addition of the first two sessions on television, combined with our ‘every mat, every match’ digital strategy will provide the ultimate viewing experience for them.”

The 2013 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships finals were the most-viewed since 2004, the first year ESPN televised the finals live. Overall, ESPN and ESPNU’s 2013 Wrestling Championships coverage reached 5.4 million viewers in the course of two days. Digitally, ESPN3 and WatchESPN combined to generate 12.68 million live minutes viewed throughout three days of coverage, up 13% from 2012.