FISU and Olympic Channel sign Memorandum of Understanding
FISU and Olympic Channel join forces to showcase university sports coverage
LAUSANNE, 19 June 2018 – FISU, the home of international university sport, announced today that it has reached an agreement with the Olympic Channel to collaborate on content. The signing of today’s Memorandum of Understanding strengthens FISU’s position to effectively engage new audiences and younger generations all year round, utilising the Olympic Channel’s digital platform and social channels.
Following the announcement, FISU President Oleg Matytsin said:
“Our collaboration with the Olympic Channel is another great step forward for FISU. New technology has made it more realistic than ever to produce extensive coverage of FISU’s wide portfolio of high-quality international competitions, featuring the world’s best university sportswomen and men.
“From the success of our own digital distribution of coverage for FISU competitions, we know there is a strong appetite for watching student sport and this MoU will become integral to our new TV and digital strategy. FISU is grateful for this opportunity to bring coverage of student sport to even bigger audiences, and to growing awareness of the great student athletes competing all year round.”
For 2018, the FISU event calendar includes 34 World University Championships, as well as the FISU Forum, which is an educational symposium focused on supporting dual career athletes. FISU is also showcasing its 3x3 Basketball World University League where, for the first time in FISU history, student-athletes will compete for their university rather than their national teams.
In 2019, FISU will also have its showpiece events: the Summer and Winter Universiades. In March, the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, will host the Winter Universiade, while the passionate Italian sports city of Napoli will host the summer edition in July. As the largest summer and winter university multi-sport competitions in the world, each event draws several thousand student-athletes together in competition.
The Olympic Channel today also announced that it had reached agreements with seven other sport governing bodies and multi-sport organisations to collaborate on content for the Olympic Channel. Alongside FISU, these eight new cooperation agreements bring the number of the global platform’s federation partners to 75.
The Federation of International Lacrosse (FILx), International Federation of Basque Pelota (FIPV), International Korfball Federation (IKF), International Sumo Federation (IFS) and International Wushu Federation (IWUF), in addition to the International Committee of Mediterranean Games (ICMG) and Special Olympics, join FISU in partnering with the Olympic Channel.
The full portfolio of the Olympic Channel’s federation partners includes international federations (IFs), IOC-recognised federations and organisations, multi-sport organisers and federations not recognised by the IOC.
“The Olympic Channel provides a platform for the promotion of all sports and athletes within the Olympic Movement,” said Mark Parkman, General Manager of the Olympic Channel. “We look forward to working together to help expand the reach of these sports and events through the creation and distribution of content targeting a worldwide audience.”
In addition to collaborating on live events, the Olympic Channel actively works with its federation partners to present event coverage, highlights, magazine shows, news coverage and original programming, providing an additional platform to distribute content that is complementary to current broadcast and distribution arrangements.
The Olympic Channel is a multi-platform destination where fans can experience the power of sport and the excitement of the Olympic Games all year round, and is available worldwide via mobile apps for Android and iOS devices and at olympicchannel.com.
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Contact: Tom Julian
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The International University Sports Federation – FISU
Founded in 1949, FISU stands for Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire (International University Sports Federation). FISU was formed within university institutions in order to promote sports values and encourage sports practice in harmony with and complementary to the university spirit. Promoting sports values means encouraging friendship, fraternity, fair play, perseverance, integrity and cooperation amongst students, who one day may have responsibilities and even key positions in politics, the economy, culture and industry.
Open to student-athletes aged between 17 and 25, FISU’s events consist of Summer and Winter Universiades and the World University Championships. Universiades are multi-sport events staged in odd-numbered years, while the World University Championships are single-sport events, staged in even-numbered years. Besides its sporting events, FISU stages educational events, such as the FISU Forum on University Sport, the FISU World Conference on Development through Sport, the FISU World Conference on Innovation - Education - Sport, the FISU Sport Education Summit and the FISU Seminars.
With FISU’s motto being “Excellence in Mind and Body”, all events include educational and cultural aspects, bringing together sport and academia from all over the world to celebrate in a true spirit of friendship and sportsmanship. FISU cooperates in developing its events and programmes with all major international sports and educational organisations. As major outcomes of those collaborations, in 2015, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) proclaimed the International Day of University Sport to be celebrated annually on 20 September, and has seen huge growth in its first two years. As well as this, an Anti-Doping textbook and teaching materials were developed with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
FISU is composed of 174 Member Associations (National University Sports Federations). The FISU General Assembly elects the members of the FISU Executive Committee, its board of directors. A total of 14 permanent committees advise the Executive Committee in their specialised areas. For the daily administration of FISU, the FISU Executive Committee relies on the Secretary General, who is assisted by the FISU staff. FISU’s headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland.
For more information, please contact the FISU Media Dept. at media@fisu.net or visit our web site at www.fisu.net
Videos
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Photos
For an extensive selection of photos available shortly after each event, please follow us on Flickr (www.flickr.com/photos/fisu_network)
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For up-to-the-minute information on FISU and regular updates, please follow us on our social media channels:
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