Eurovision Sport and World Rowing extend media rights partnership

Eurovision Sport and World Rowing are delighted to announce that they have agreed a four-year renewal of their European media rights agreement, beginning in 2021 and running until 2024.

The new agreement, covering Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, extends a partnership dating back to the early 1980s, and will take over from the existing four-year contract which expires this year.

Events covered by the agreement include:

·         World Rowing Championships, 2021, 2022, 2023;

·         European Rowing Championships, 2021, 2023, 2024 (the 2022 edition forms part of the combined European   Championships and is therefore excluded from this contract);

·         World Rowing Cup series, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024.

The new agreement begins with the European Rowing Championships in Varese, Italy, on 5 to 7 April, shortly to be followed by the first regatta of the 2021 World Rowing Cup series in Zagreb, Croatia on 30 April to 2 May. The main event of the 2021 calendar is the World Rowing Championships, featuring the new Olympic champions, in Shanghai, China on 17 to 24 October.

Twenty EBU Members, have already committed to be part of the new contract.

They are: HRT (Croatia); CT (Czech Republic); DR (Denmark); EER (Estonia); ARD and ZDF (Germany); ERT (Greece); MTVA (Hungary); RAI (Italy); LRT (Lithuania); NOS (Netherlands); NRK (Norway); TVP (Poland); RTE (Ireland); RTR (Russia); RTS (Serbia); RTV (Slovenia); TVE (Spain); SRG-SSR (Switzerland); BBC (UK).

World Rowing events will continue to feature on L’Equipe TV in France, while coverage in other territories will be offered by a mix of additional broadcasters and the digital platforms of World Rowing and the EBU.

Jean-Christophe Rolland, President of World Rowing, said: “We are very pleased to have been able to renew our European broadcasting agreement with Eurovision Sport, with whom we have partnered since the mid- ‘80s. With every renewal, the number of Europe’s public service networks  that cover rowing has increased, together with the amount of coverage we have received. We are all living through difficult times at the moment so it is particularly encouraging for World Rowing that we can continue to rely on Eurovision Sport and its membership to broadcast our regattas for at least the next four years.”

Andreas Aristodemou, Head of Summer Sports Rights at Eurovision Sport, said: “We are proud to secure the rights for the World Rowing events for at least four more years. The prolongation of this agreement, in a year severely disrupted by the ongoing pandemic, shows the strength of this partnership and our commitment to continue building the profile of rowing across our Membership.”

The agreement is one of a series of media rights renewals and new agreements announced this year by Eurovision Sport, with partners that include: FIG, the international gymnastics federation; European Gymnastics; RSBF, the Romania Ski Biathlon Federation; the International Biathlon Federation; A.S.O. (Tour de France); Unipublic (La Vuelta a Espana); and ÖSV, the Austrian Ski Association.