Zug, Switzerland/Warsaw, Poland – Infront Sports & Media, exclusive media rights partner to the European Volleyball Confederation (CEV) for over 20 years, has secured an agreement with Polsat, Poland’s biggest private broadcaster. The agreement spans the 2015 and 2017 CEV Men’s and Women’s European Volleyball Championships as well as the 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 CEV European Beach Volleyball Championships. The announcement goes along with the drawing of lots for the final round which takes place this afternoon in Sofia, Bulgaria.
With exclusive live, delayed and highlights rights across all TV, online and mobile platforms in the country, Polsat will air all Polish national team matches as well as selected key games across the competitions. Furthermore, for the 2017 CEV Men’s event, Polsat will handle the host broadcast production operation providing a high-quality signal to broadcasters in Europe and beyond.
Piotr Pykel, Deputy Head of Sports at Polsat, said: “We are happy to extend our cooperation with the CEV and Infront. Polsat has provided extensive coverage of the CEV European Championships since 2009, reaching peak audiences of more than 8.5 million viewers in 2009 when the Polish Men’s team won the title in the final against France in Izmir, Turkey."
He continues: "Thanks to Infront’s continuous investment in the quality of the TV product, as well as Polsat’s domestic production, we can assure all fans captivating live reporting and in-depth background coverage of the events. With volleyball as one of the top sports in the country, the CEV European Volleyball Championships are an essential feature of our sports programming and very much anticipated by our viewers. The fascination for the sport is even increasing as we approach Poland playing host to the Men’s event in 2017. We are happy to host and broadcast another important volleyball event after a massive success of the FIVB Men’s World Championship co-organised and broadcast by Polsat and won by the Polish team.”
Stephan Herth, Executive Director Summer Sports at Infront, commented: “Through this new agreement with Polsat, we have secured a key volleyball market for the long-term and guaranteed Polish fans comprehensive coverage of the CEV flagship events. With its programming of previous CEV European Volleyball Championships, Polsat has reached high audience levels in the market and will now also feature the emerging beach volleyball discipline extensively. Based on our proven and reliable collaboration in the past, we are very much looking forward to working with Polsat for the host broadcast in 2017.”
Over the years, Infront has developed a framework for a state-of-the-art HD host broadcast production at the CEV European Championship events. Overall, Infront supervises all aspects of the broadcast to ensure both filming and transmitting produces the highest quality signal.
The 2015 CEV Women's European Volleyball Championship will be held from 26 September to 4 October 2015 in Belgium and the Netherlands. The 2015 Men’s event is staged from 9 to 18 October in Bulgaria and Italy. For the 2015 CEV European Beach Volleyball Championships, Austria, Latvia, Switzerland as well as further countries will serve as host nations for the Men’s and Women’s events respectively. The final will take place in Klagenfurt, Austria at the end of July and build a highlight of the beach volleyball season.
Infront Sports & Media is the most respected sports marketing company in the world, managing a comprehensive portfolio of top properties. Led by President & CEO Philippe Blatter, Infront covers all aspects of successful sporting events – including distribution of media rights, sponsorship, media production and event operation – and has won a reputation for its high standards of delivery. As the number one player in winter sport and with a leading role in football and summer sports, Infront enjoys long-lasting partnerships with 160 rights-holders and hundreds of sponsors and media companies. Headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, Infront has a team of experienced staff working from 25 offices across 13 countries, delivering 4,000 event days of top class sport around the world every year.
Telewizja Polsat was founded in 1992 as the first private TV network in Poland. Polsat is a leading broadcaster in the TV industry in Poland and it is very focused on sports broadcasting. It showed as the first private TV station in Central Europe the FIFA World Cup (in 2002 and in 2006) and UEFA European Championships in 2008. Polsat has been the most active Polish sports broadcaster thanks to the variety of its sports thematic channels: Polsat Sport (launched in 2000), Polsat Sport Extra and Polsat Sport News. Polsat has a strong and long-term experience in showing volleyball prestigious events, it has been a Host Broadcaster of the CEV European Championships: Men’s in 2013 and Women’s in 2009. In 2014 Polsat has co-organised, produced and broadcast the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship won by the Polish team.