The International Canoe Federation has extended its global media rights partnership for its World Championship events with the European Broadcasting Union consortium of public-service broadcasters.
The new three-year contract will run from 2017 to 2019 and provides the EBU with exclusive worldwide media rights to all ICF World Championships across this period. This guarantees the ICF free-to-air coverage of all its events on television, radio and digital platforms.
The events included in the agreement are the next three Sprint World Championships (August 23-27, 2017 in Racice, Czech Republic; August 21-25, 2018 in Montemor-o-Velho, Portugal and 2019 in Szeged, Hungary) and the next three Slalom World Championships (September 29-October 1, 2017 in Pau, France; September 12-16, 2018 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and 2019 in La Seu d'Urgell, Spain).
To make the events more spectacular and attract new fans, the ICF, in recent years, has been testing new formats both in slalom and sprint. This year, the Slalom World Championships will include a new Extreme Canoe Slalom which will see kayakers race against each other rather than against the clock.
ICF president Jose Perurena said: “They have been an extremely useful partner in developing our sport around the world and we believe this continued agreement will help develop and expose canoeing to our fans further.”