Lagardère Sports builds host broadcasting portfolio

Lagardère Sports, the sports marketing division of conglomerate Lagardère, has been confirmed as host broadcaster for five major sports events this November.

The series of deals includes the International Weightlifting Federation’s World Championships, which take place from November 20-28 in the US city of Houston. Lagardère Sports will produce the world broadcast feed of the event.

Dennis Spencer, executive vice-president of media at Lagardère Sports, said: “Our US office is working closely with the Harris-County Houston Sports Authority to maximise the impact of the event given it is the first World Championships in the sport for nearly 40 years in the States. The appointment for host broadcasting and global TV exposure was a natural extension of services.”

Lagardère Sports will also serve as host broadcaster for the 2015 World Wushu Championships, which run from November 14-18 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Under the deal, Lagardère Sports will live stream the event online and broadcast 90 hours of content from three fields simultaneously. Lagardère Sports will also provide a dedicated OTT video platform for event coverage and create additional content for fans.

Yu Zaiqing, president of the International Wushu Federation, said: “We’re very excited about working with Lagardère Sports on the creation of our multi-faceted digital platform that will give us the potential to reach serious wushu fans and new viewers around the globe with our Wushu TV channel.

“Streaming the 13th World Wushu Championships live from Jakarta will allow people everywhere to share the excitement of our premier signature event as it unfolds. As we hopefully look forward to being an Olympic sport in the next decade, we’re pleased that Lagardère will help us develop these essential digital strategies to grow wushu faster and further professionalise the outreach and marketing of IWUF.”

Lagardère Sports has also been re-appointed as host broadcaster for the Race of Champions motorsport event, which this year takes place at London’s Olympic Stadium in the UK from November 20-21. Lagardère Sports will produce a live feed for various broadcasters and has also acquired media distribution rights and live streaming platforms for the event. This will be the fourth year of a continuing cooperation between the Race of Champions and Lagardère Sports.

Meanwhile, Lagardère Sports will serve as host broadcaster for the International Cycling Union’s Tour of Taihu Lake, a race that takes place from October 31 to November 8 in the Jiangsu Province of China. Lagardère Sports will work with local production partner Jiangsu TV to live broadcast the race in more than 100 countries around the world.

In addition, Lagardère Sports has agreed a deal to become host broadcaster for the Scottish Open Badminton Grand Prix, in an appointment that runs through to 2017. This year's event takes place in the Scottish city of Glasgow from November 18-22.

To support the series of deals, Lagardère Sports has appointed Johan Hedblom as director of media solutions, responsible for running the Lagardère Sports Digital Media Centre in Europe.

In addition, Guy Horne has been promoted to senior director of media and production, and will head up business development, including host broadcasting, production and digital media services to major sports events organisers and federations.