FIS awarded the marketing of all commercial rights to the FIS Alpine
World Ski Championships and the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships
taking place in 2019 and 2021 to Infront Sports & Media. This was announced after the spring meeting of the FIS Council in Cavtat-Dubrovnik.
The agreement between the federation and the international sports marketing company includes the distribution of worldwide media rights across all platforms and territories. It also covers the complete spectrum of marketing rights, including title sponsorship, presenting sponsorship and hospitality packages.
The agreement between the federation and the international sports marketing company includes the distribution of worldwide media rights across all platforms and territories. It also covers the complete spectrum of marketing rights, including title sponsorship, presenting sponsorship and hospitality packages.
Furthermore, Infront will handle media production of the four events, transmitting an HD signal to broadcasters around the world.
Gian Franco Kasper, FIS President stated: "The FIS World Championships in the Alpine and Nordic Events have demonstrated their status amongst the most important winter sports events. We are confident that the new partnership between FIS and Infront to market and broadcast the Championships in 2019 and 2021 can develop them even further and especially on a global basis".
Bruno Marty, Executive Director Winter Sports at Infront, commented: "Covering two global event highlights, the agreement marks a milestone in the continuous enhancement of Infront’s top-level winter sports portfolio. We thank the FIS for its trust in our expertise and are proud to provide it with the full spectrum of commercial support out of one hand. We will greatly contribute our experience from marketing a majority of FIS World Cup events and further boost the commercial strength of the FIS Alpine and Nordic World Championships. The experience we have gained from jointly developing the media production standards for FIS World Cup events, will further contribute to an increased appeal".
The hosts for the 2019 and 2021 FIS Alpine and Nordic World Ski Championships are not yet determined. Bids for the 2019 Alpine event have been submitted by Are (Sweden) and Cortina d’Ampezzo (ITA). Candidates for the 2019 Nordic event include Almaty (Kazakhstan), Oberstdorf (Germany), Planica (Slovenia) and Seefeld (Austria). A proven track record in the marketing of FIS events as media and/or marketing partner to the majority of national associations hosting FIS World Cup events across various disciplines, Infront is already profoundly involved in the sport on a global level. In this role, it has facilitated global media rights distribution through a collective approach, developed and produced attractive programming formats and increased worldwide visibility for the series. On the sponsorship side, Infront has successfully implemented a streamlined sponsorship approach across more than 50 races in Alpine skiing – guaranteeing high exclusivity and an impactful positioning to sponsors.
Together with the FIS, Infront has also established guidelines to ensure a consistent quality in media production across the entire season. Thanks to its know-how and capabilities in the field, the group has also produced selected events with its own team. In the past, Infront has already collaborated with FIS for the media rights distribution of the FIS Alpine and Nordic World Ski Championships outside of Europe. As a shareholder of FIS Marketing AG, it is involved in the marketing of FIS controlled rights to the FIS World Cup.
Infront Sports & Media, based in Zug, Switzerland, is one of the leading international sports marketing companies in the world. Infront has around 500 employees in 20 offices across 10 countries, including Austria, China, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland as well as countries hosting a major sports event. The company enjoys successful partnerships with 120 rights-holders and hundreds of sponsors and media companies.
In 2012, Infront successfully delivered over 3,300 event-days including 18 World Championships.
