ELEVEN Sports To Broadcast All EuroLeague And EuroCup Games In Italy

Euroleague Basketball is proud to announce that ELEVEN Sports has joined the Euroleague Basketball family by becoming the OTT platform broadcaster for its competitions in Italy, thereby ensuring that all Italian fans will enjoy elite broadcast coverage of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and 7DAYS EuroCup.

ELEVEN Sports will broadcast all Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and 7DAYS EuroCup games once those seasons begin on September 30 and October 19, respectively, bringing more than 500 fixtures to all Italian fans. The agreement will run until the end of the 2023-24 season, which will mark the 25th anniversary of Euroleague Basketball. All games with AX Armani Exchange Milan, Dolomiti Energia Trento, Umana Reyer Venice and Virtus Segafredo Bologna – plus other selected games – will have Italian commentators calling all the action of the two top pan-European basketball club competitions on ELEVEN Sports.

The new agreement with ELEVEN Sports will increase the choice of elite basketball sources being offered to Italian fans following the recent announcement that SKY Italy will broadcast EuroLeague and EuroCup games in the country until 2024-25 on an exclusive basis for linear rights and a non-exclusive basis for digital rights.

ELEVEN Sports was founded in 2015 as a multinational group operating sports television channels and OTT services with a combination of linear and digital channels that now reach millions of fans wherever they are and generate billions of views every month.

“We are very proud to welcome ELEVEN Sports to the Euroleague Basketball broadcasters family, widening the options for our Italian fans to watch all our games,” Alex Ferrer Kristjansson, Euroleague Basketball Marketing and Communication Senior Director said, said. “Italy, a traditional basketball market, has experienced renewed interest in our sport over the last years, and it is our intention to bring our games as close as possible to all our tifosi.”

Euroleague Basketball’s importance in Italy has shown solid and continuous growth in recent years, with fan interest jumping 36% and TV audience growing an outstanding 390% over the last three seasons.

“EuroLeague and EuroCup represent the excellence of European Basketball” stated Giovanni Zurleni, Delegate Administrator of Eleven Sports Italy. “We are very proud of broadcasting these two top competitions and this is a demonstration of the growth of Eleven while becoming a big media destination for both local and international sports; we have a big focus on premium rights, maintaining an important space for lower level championships. We want to involve, satisfy and entertain all the fans on a global sports community. Not only with the live broadcasting but also explaining with passion all the stories that make sport something unique. The appointment for all fans is next September 30, we expect the moment to start this new adventure together with all participating clubs and specially with AX Armani Exchange Milan, Virtus Segafredo Bologna, Umana Reyer Venice and Dolomiti Energia Trento representing Italy on both competitions.”

2021 Edition Of The WTA Finals To Be Held In Guadalajara, Mexico

The WTA announced today Guadalajara, Mexico will host the 2021 season-ending WTA Finals the week of November 8. The prestigious year-end finale, featuring the top 8 singles players and doubles teams on the Porsche Race to the WTA Finals, will be held in Guadalajara this year, with the event returning to its home in Shenzhen, China from 2022 through 2030.

“I would like to extend my appreciation to the Guadalajara tournament organizers and Octagon for their commitment in hosting the event this season and for helping the WTA write another exciting chapter in WTA Finals history,” said Steve Simon, WTA Chairman and CEO. “We are excited to bring our showpiece tournament to the exciting and vibrant city of Guadalajara in this unique year.”

Simon added, “I would also like to express my gratitude to the Gemdale Corporation in Shenzhen for their cooperation and resilience, and we look forward to returning in 2022 to enjoy the WTA Finals over the next decade.”

Guadalajara, a city in western Mexico and the second largest city in the country, is considered the cultural center of Mexico and has hosted various international sporting, film and entertainment events. The city is no stranger to women’s tennis, having also held a successful WTA 250 event in March earlier this year.

“We are delighted to announce the WTA Finals will be coming to Guadalajara this season and it is our immense honor to welcome the top 8 singles players and doubles teams to Mexico for this highly respected event,” said Tournament Director Gustavo Santoscoy. “We look forward to hosting the WTA Finals in 2021 and putting on a world class tournament in November for the millions of tennis fans around the globe.”

Remarking on the home of the WTA Finals, Eddy Liu, Co-Tournament Director of the Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen and CEO of Gemdale Sports, stated, “Shenzhen remains honored and committed to the Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen and we look forward to welcoming the event back to China in 2022 to build upon the legacy after its first historic staging in 2019.”

Click here for the latest 2021 WTA Tour calendar. Further details on the WTA Finals in Guadalajara will be announced at a press conference in Guadalajara shortly.

Tokyo 2020: A Full Analysis Of Sponsorship Impact Across Social Media

In their latest report, Hookit have delved into analysing how social performance across the unique Olympic Games in Tokyo panned out. Find out more in this new Insights piece and download the full report.

The Most Social Olympics Ever

The Olympics are over, the medals have been handed out, but the impact for brands is still being counted. For many Olympic athletes, their star shines brightest once in a lifetime or only once every 4 years. Tokyo 2020 (in 2021) was their moment to shine and shine they did. From 16th July to 15th August (a week before the Opening Ceremony to a week after the Closing Ceremony), Olympic athletes, governing bodies, and Olympic organizations posted over 230k times across social media, gaining nearly 4B interactions and video views from fans.

Hookit tracked posts from 3,500+ Olympic Athletes and 500+ IGBs & Olympic organizations published across Facebook, Instagram*, TikTok, Twitter, Twitch, VK, Weibo, and YouTube from 16 Jul, 2021 – 15 Aug, 2021.

Here is the social media impact of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics:

  • 1.6B total fans / followers (Athletes and organizations combined)
  • 113M new followers gained
  • 232k total social posts
  • 3.8B interactions + video views on those posts

Top Sports On Social

Global Football, Tennis, and Basketball star athletes like Kevin Durant, Novak Djokovic, and Alex Morgan came into the Olympics with huge social followings, lifting their sports to the top of the social media followers charts. However, only one of those 3 sports came in the top 5 sports by fan engagement (likes, comments, shares, and video views). 


The above chart shows the top sports by total fan engagement (likes, comments, shares, and video views) on posts by athletes in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Global Football, Tennis, and Basketball athletes came into the Olympics with the most total followers, but athletes in Skate, Diving, Track and Field, Badminton, and Gymnastics all saw 30%+ gains in cumulative total followers during the Olympics.

When it comes to fan engagement, Skateboarding athletes generated the most total engagement, but Diving and Rugby athletes had the highest average engagement rate on each post.

These Games saw a breakout social star, Ilona Maher of USA Rugby, lead all athletes in terms of total fan engagement on social media, led by her massively popular TikTok videos. She was the only athlete with over 100M video views, most of which came from TikTok. Why did fans watch her videos so much? She nailed the perfect combination of relatable humor, behind-the-scenes access to the Olympic Village, and interacting with her followers. Some of her top posts were about mingling with other athletes, the infamous “cardboard” beds, and her teammates.

Here’s a look at the top 10 athletes by social media engagement during these Games:

AthleteSportFan Engagement
Ilona MaherRugby149M
Rayssa LealSkate109M
Rommel PachecoDiving90M
Tom DaleyDiving71M
Sky BrownSkate68M
Kanoa IgarashiSurf42M
Yuto HorigomeSkate38M
Simone BilesGymnastics29M
Daniel AlvesGlobal Football23M
Tai Tzu-YingBadminton20M

The top 10 list is dominated by newcomers, pushing Simone Biles down to 8th place in total fan engagement on social during the Games.

Value For Brand Sponsors

Every Olympic marketing professional is familiar with Rule 40 and how it limits the ability of brands and athletes to promote their partnership during the Games. While it was eased slightly for the Tokyo Games, the general rule was that any athlete was allowed ONE social post thanking each brand they worked with for the support. Anything beyond that was restricted unless the brand was an official Olympic sponsor. As the Olympics bill themselves as a “clean playing environment” without sponsor logos everywhere in the background, the general assumption would be that any Olympic partner brand would get great exposure when they could. However, when looking at the top 10 brands by sponsorship value AAV, another story emerges.

Official Olympics sponsors made up 4 of the top 10 brands by sponsorship value during the Tokyo 2020 Games period. The remaining 5 brands are all Apparel or Equipment companies, outfitting the NOCs and Olympic athletes. Apparel & Accessories brands dominated total sponsorship value received with over $30M in AAV. No other industry received even $5M in cumulative AAV. 

How did the Apparel brands do so well? Their branding on team uniforms led to a massive amount of incidental exposure. 83% of the total sponsorship value generated during the Tokyo Games came from incidental exposure. However, when examining the deliberate promotion of brands, Visa rises to the top with Comcast, Red Bull, RBC, and United all making the top 10. The partnerships these brands established paid off during the Olympics with the deliberate promotion by their athletes and organization partners. Even with Rule 40 limiting athletes to one branded post per partner, athletes still generated 69% of the total deliberate sponsorship value for brands.

The Full Report

To get the full analysis of the Tokyo 2020 Games on Social Media, download the attached report. In addition to diving deeper into the above data, it also covers the following:

  • Top Athletes by Sponsorship Value
  • Top Industries & Brands in each
  • Daily trends & when fan engagement peaks
  • Excellent activation examples and why they worked
  • Key Learnings for Beijing, Paris, & beyond

Head to the following link on Hookit.com where you are able to download your free copy of the full report – GET THE FULL REPORT

Parimatch Strengthens English Premier League Presence, Adding Three New Clubs

Parimatch, an international tech and betting brand, signs a new three-club agreement involving English Premier League teams: Aston Villa, Brighton & Hove Albion, and Southampton.

The company signed agreements with the clubs on August 21, 2021. The contracts cover multiple offline and digital rights, tickets & hospitality, club merchandise, exclusive access to club assets, and much more.

The agreements also include several exciting upcoming joint projects, advertisements, and giveaways.

The agreements with the three clubs closely follow Parimatch’s recent partnership announcement with Chelsea and further boosts its presence in one of the world’s strongest leagues. With Aston Villa, Brighton & Hove Albion, and Southampton, Parimatch is now one of the few betting brands to have multiple club partnerships among Premier League clubs.

Aside from three new club signings, the global company has official marketing agreements with Chelsea, Leicester City, and Everton.

Roman Syrotian, co-CEO at Parimatch Tech, says: “Our determined expansion into global sports propositions is the subject of huge pride to everyone at Parimatch Tech. With the addition of these three great football clubs to our portfolio, we can say that, as of now, 30% of the English Premier League shares our values and our spirit.

We are glad to be partnered with these clubs and are excited to utilize the upcoming opportunities these ventures present mutually. Parimatch is in awe of the clubs’ great history and hopes to contribute to their success in the coming years. We are also honored to have Chelsea, Everton, and Leicester City by our side, and can’t wait to see our partners on the pitch — showing their passion for football and, naturally, winning.”

Nicola Ibbetson, Aston Villa Chief Commercial Officer

This is an exciting announcement for the club, bringing onboard an international brand like Parimatch who match our growth ambitions. This partnership will enable us to bring even more opportunities to our fans, and we look forward to what we can achieve together.

Sarah Batters, Director of Marketing and Partnerships at Southampton Football Club

We are delighted to welcome Parimatch as a new commercial partner. Parimatch shares our club values of being ambitious and forward-thinking, and we look forward to working with them for the season ahead.

Genius Sports Names Ian Wray To Lead Global Soccer Growth

Genius Sports Limited, the official data, technology and commercial partner that powers the ecosystem connecting sports, betting and media, has appointed sports data expert Ian Wray to lead its growth in the global soccer market.

Wray joins Genius Sports from ChyronHego where he led global sales for their sports-data focused Tracab division for the past nine years. In that role, he worked closely with the majority of major football leagues and federations globally to implement data tracking, coaching and fan engagement solutions.

Wray will oversee Genius Sports’ partnerships with many of the world’s leading soccer organizations including the English Premier League, Argentine Football Association and Liga MX. Applying his extensive expertise in official sports data, Wray will help to expand Genius Sports’ fast-growing range of technology, video and fan engagement solutions across the global soccer sector.

Jack Davison, Chief Commercial Officer at Genius Sports, said: “Ian is a real expert in how official data can be monetized to power the most contextual and engaging products for fans, coaches, broadcasters and other key stakeholders. Our global soccer business has grown significantly in recent years and Ian is the perfect person to take that to the next level.”

Ian Wray said: “I’m tremendously excited to be joining Genius Sports at this key moment in the company’s development. The market for official sports data and video content is continuing to expand at pace. I’m, therefore, very much looking forward to helping Genius Sports leverage its existing technology portfolio, as well as its impressive recent acquisitions, to deliver even greater value across the whole spectrum of stakeholders within the world of soccer.”

CSM Sport & Entertainment Appoints Dual Regional Directors In Asia

CSM Sport & Entertainment has announced a new leadership structure for their Asia operations which sees the appointment of two Regional Directors.

Lesley Murphy and Kathryn Rhodes have been promoted to oversee the agency in a joint Regional Director role after having both played a key part in overseeing client accounts and business operations in recent years.

Murphy has been with the CSM business since 2014, first leading the agency’s key account with AIA Insurance and the strategic delivery of their global partnership with Tottenham Hotspur. In her previous role, Murphy oversaw marketing and communications for CSM in the region and will continue to lead on driving exposure of the agency’s service offerings and expertise moving forward.

Kathryn Rhodes joined CSM in 2016 to spearhead HSBC’s sponsorship strategy and delivery of the World Rugby Sevens Series in Asia. In more recent times, Rhodes has led the charge on the agency’s business development, focused on driving new and existing client growth.  Rhodes will look to ramp up business development efforts across the region in her new role and continue to work closely with global and regional sales teams to connect brands with value-adding properties.

Both roles will report into CSM Deputy Chairman, Jim Glover, who commented: “The combination of the two skillsets that Kathryn and Lesley bring to the business will provide a very solid base from which we plan to increase our involvement and activity in the region. I have no doubt they will continue the fantastic work we already provide for our clients and look forward to working with them and the whole team to grow our offerings in Asia.”

On the appointment, Rhodes shared “I’m extremely excited to lead the CSM team and our growth strategy in Asia.  And it makes me proud to do so alongside another female leader”. Murphy added “I am thrilled to be taking on this new role to oversee our ambitions in Asia, and grateful to work with such an exceptional team. I look forward to expanding CSM Asia’s reach and impact across the region together”.

CSM has been delivering work across the APAC region for over ten years with offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, China, and Australia. Aside from long-standing clients, HSBC and AIA, the agency works with leading brands and rightsholders in the region such as adidas, SAP, Jaguar Land Rover, Hisense, Citi, CLP, and most recently NEOM.

CRYPTO.COM Becomes Paris Saint-Germain’s Official Cryptocurrency Platform

Innovation-driven Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) has today announced a multi-year partnership agreement with the world’s fastest growing crypto platform, Crypto.com. Crypto.com will become the Official Cryptocurrency Platform Partner of the Parisian club and the partnership will also include the release of exclusive Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) on Crypto.com’s native NFT platform: Crypto.com/NFT. In addition, for the first time ever for an agreement of such a scale, Crypto.com will pay a significant portion of the sponsorship fee using the cryptocurrency token CRO.

Paris Saint-Germain has recently built one of the strongest football teams in the history of the sport. Adding world class players Lionel Messi, Sergio Ramos, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Georginio Wijnaldum, Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes to an already exceptionally strong squad, has seen the club’s international appeal rise to new heights. Partnering with Crypto.com, a leader in the crypto industry was a natural next step. The company boasts over 10 million users worldwide and is a top-ten finance app in both the App Store and Google Play. In addition to building the world’s fastest growing crypto platform, Crypto.com also offers the world’s most popular crypto card available in 30+ countries.

Crypto.com has led the industry in sports partnerships, recently announcing global partnerships with UFC, Formula 1®, and Lega Serie A. Earlier this year, Crypto.com became the first crypto platform to partner with an F1 team, and the first to partner with an NHL team.

Marc Armstrong, Chief Partnerships Officer, Paris Saint-Germain, commented: “We are delighted to welcome Crypto.com to the Paris Saint-Germain partner family. We share the same passion for innovation and the same ambition to reach the very top. With this partnership Paris Saint-Germain demonstrates once more it’s vision and leadership as a pioneer in areas such as lifestyle, esports and digital. It is an exciting time for Cryptocurrency and we cannot wait to work with Crypto.com to bring new experiences to all of the club’s fans.”

“Our mission since day one has been to accelerate the world’s transition to cryptocurrency. We do so by finding the best partners in the world, and Paris Saint-Germain is second to none” said Crypto.com co-founder and CEO Kris Marszalek, “Between the brand visibility, stadium and team access, and collaborative development of NFTs, I have no doubt we’ll create new and exciting experiences for football fans around the world.”

InCrowd Welcomes Simon Thomas As Chairman

With significant growth in the UK and International markets in the last three years, InCrowd has appointed Simon Thomas, as Chairman of its Board of Directors. A leader in the evolution of commercial sports marketing during his time at TEAM Marketing, FIFA and Fox, Thomas will guide the Board and shareholders, whilst offering strategic advice and support to the senior management team. 

Aidan Cooney, InCrowd’s co-founder and CEO stated, “We are absolutely thrilled that Simon has agreed to join InCrowd as Chairman. His appointment adds to a number of new senior executive appointments we have made in the past year. The level of experience that Simon brings both in terms of his standing in the industry and as a specialist in organisational transformation and development, should turbo-charge our next phase of growth across multiple new territories .”  

Thomas adds, “I have great respect for Aidan; as the founder of Opta Sports, he has a great track record and enormous experience in this area. At InCrowd he has built a strong team and the progression of the business in just 6 years is impressive. Product innovation to crack the digital challenge is paramount, along with client success and the creation of strong and trusted relationships. It’s an exciting era for the business and I’m very happy to join the team.”

Over the last 18 months, sport has seen a distinct acceleration in its digital transformation, as organisations realise the importance of truly knowing, connecting and engaging with fans on a deeper and personalised level through better use of first party data and premium fan facing platforms. 

In response to this, InCrowd chose to focus on product development, ideating, building and delivering new and innovative solutions to respond to the rapidly changing requirements of clients and their commercial partners. Over the last 2 years, InCrowd has almost doubled in size to over one hundred team members, with 65% of the workforce focussed on R&D. 

At the heart of InCrowd’s product innovation is their Customer Data and Experience Platform (CDXP), Bridge, a “one stop shop” for querying and using customer data to create personalised fan experiences across digital platforms via a best in class headless CMS and direct to fan content, messaging and engagement tools, all analysed across a range of tailored reporting suites.

“The very foundation of our business lies in our belief that fans are your greatest asset and that creating great digital experiences through high-quality fan facing platforms, data driven content & messaging and innovative activations is the most effective way to drive swift ROI.” says Cooney.

“We empower clients to be bold in their digital and data transformations and support them fully at every stage of their journey. These are the organisations that are now reaping the rewards and we’re excited to help others reach their full potential.”

Thomas agrees; “We are in an era of digital disruption, and clearly the industry is moving towards greater and more effective use of data. InCrowd are market leaders in this space. Everyone’s talking about the need to connect directly with fans and consumers, but at the moment it seems to be more talk than action. InCrowd are actually making things happen, facilitating monumental digital changes for their clients and demonstrating tangible returns, which is one of the things that sets them apart.”

About Simon Thomas

A sports industry veteran, Simon will take on the role of Chairman alongside his role of Partner at Colgan Bauer. An influential boutique firm, Colgan Bauer offers international sports strategy consultancy for many of the world’s top governing bodies, rights holders and investors. Prior to this, Simon was Chief Commercial Officer at FIFA, where he extensively restructured the digital and commercial teams.  His further experience includes 15 years at TEAM Marketing, UEFA’s commercial agency for the development of UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League competitions in various roles culminating in Chief Executive Officer; and 3 years as EVP Global Sport and Content Sales at Fox where he acted on rights acquisitions for Fox Sports internationally and established a global content sales team selling entertainment, factual and sports content. Simon also established his own advisory agency, Talisman Sport & Media.

PCB Signs Three-Year Agreement With CricHQ And CricViz

The Pakistan Cricket Board has signed a three-year agreement with internationally renowned scoring platform CricHQ and world’s leading cricket data providers CricViz.

CricHQ will be PCB’s live scoring partner and will digitise scoring from grassroots level all the way up to the top-tier of Pakistan cricket which is the First XIs of the six Cricket Associations. The partnership will enable the PCB to collect data and analyse player performances using match reports and statistics.

Additionally, CricHQ will also provide video automation and capturing solutions for domestic matches in order to help coaches and players analyse performances.

CricViz, widely regarded as one of the leading data analytics software in the world, will give the PCB analysts and coaches the licenses to their query tool. The analysts and coaches will also be trained on the software to help in preparation of pre-match, during match and post-match analysis using the software.

Both partnerships are in line with the PCB’s plan to upgrade its data analytical wing to provide state of the art data analysis, match plus player impacts etc. These tools will help in modernising Pakistan cricket in terms of data analysis and selection of players.

The players are also set to make considerable gains as the tools are designed to help improve their performances while overcoming the flaws in techniques that might creep in their game from time to time.

Director High Performance Nadeem Khan: “We are delighted to enter into this very exciting partnership with CricHQ and CricViz. These partnerships will provide our players, coaches and selectors with the most modern statistics and tools that have become an integral part of present day cricket across the three formats. In recent years, these tools have turned the fortunes of many players and teams as data and statistics continue to revolutionise modern day cricket with the growing demands and advancements in technology.

“CricViz is one of the leading data analytics software in the world. It will not only provide full access but also training to our analysts on their software so we can make pre-match, during match and post-match analysis using their software.

“We would also be providing the same software at the domestic level to help up and coming players learn and understand how these tools can benefit them besides providing the coaching staff a great opportunity to upskill themselves and gauge their players.”

“This upgradation will help our data analytical wing to provide state of the art data analysis, match plus player impacts to their respective coaches at various levels of our professional cricket.”

CricHQ General Manager Global Grant Elliot: “We are very excited to be partnering with the PCB as their official scoring provider for all cricket. We look forward to using our technology to grow the talent and the game. It comes at a time when New Zealand plan to tour Pakistan after a break in international cricket.

“We at CricHQ are passionate about growing innovating and using the latest technology. It’s clear that the PCB plan on using digital technology to get the edge on talent and stay in touch with all their stakeholder by digitising players and their fans.”

IOC Awards 2026-2032 Broadcast Rights In China

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) today announced that the China Media Group (CMG) has been awarded the exclusive broadcast rights in the Chinese mainland and Macau (SAR) for the XXV Olympic Winter Games in Milano Cortina in 2026, the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad in Los Angeles in 2028, the XXVI Olympic Winter Games in 2030, and the Games of the XXXV Olympiad in Brisbane in 2032.

CMG has acquired the rights across all broadcast platforms, including free-to-air television, subscription television, internet and mobile. The agreement also includes the right to broadcast all editions of the Youth Olympic Games until 2032.

The new agreement was signed during a virtual ceremony between IOC President Thomas Bach and CMG President Shen Haixiong.

“The IOC is delighted to announce an extension to our agreement with our longstanding broadcast partner, CMG” said IOC President Thomas Bach. “The new agreement means Chinese sports fans will be able to continue enjoying CMG’s first-class coverage of the Olympic Games through to 2032. I would like to congratulate CMG for the overwhelming success of its coverage of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, when it reached hundreds of millions of people.”

The IOC redistributes over 90 per cent of all its revenues to support athletes and sports organisations around the world. In these times of crisis, this support and solidarity are more important now than ever.

Shen Haixiong, CMG President, pointed out that: “CMG and the IOC enjoy long-term friendly cooperation. CMG sent a team of nearly 800 people to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. The team made contributions to the success of the Olympic Games under special circumstances through CMG’s coverage and supporting OBS’s world feed productions. This displayed CMG’s support for the Olympic Movement. The renewal of the Olympic Games broadcast rights in China will not only extend the partnership between the two sides, but also create a solid basis for widespread, continuous promotion of the Olympic Movement in China.”

According to Shen Haixiong, CMG’s CCTV Olympic Channel, which will be the world’s first 4K+HD, 7/24 TV channel, will be launched this year, along with the digital platforms of the CCTV Olympic Channel. This will be another key accomplishment in the cooperation between CMG and the IOC. It will facilitate the promotion of the Olympic Movement and the Olympic values in China and create a great atmosphere for the upcoming Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 to “encourage 300 million Chinese to engage in winter sports,” said Shen Haixiong.

CMG will broadcast the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 in China with new innovations, including 8K Ultra HD transmission, and also support Olympic Broadcast Services’ production of the world feed.

CMG already has an agreement to broadcast the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 and the Olympic Games Paris 2024. The group (previously known as CCTV) has broadcast the Olympic Games through its agreement with the Asia Broadcast Union since the 1980s, and first acquired rights directly from the IOC for the Olympic Games Beijing 2008.