Industry Shorts: Paris 2024, Bbc, National League

Orange has become Premium partner and official supplier to the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024. 

As official supplier, Orange will work with organisers to connect the games worldwide, as well fans in venues.

Organisers have pointed to the fact that almost 4bn people watched the London 2012 Games, while fans made more than 20 million calls within the venues. In 2024, Organisers say people will be sharing more photos and videos than ever before, while Orange will connect all the Games venues with fibre optic and mobile networks, while the first site under the partnership, the Paris 2024 future head office in Saint-Denis, will be connected in early 2021. 

The BBC has announced that it has entered into a new deal with the National League to provide local radio commentary of games over the next two years.

The agreement will see the broadcaster cover the Vanarama National League, National League North and National League South on local stations until the end of the 2021/22 season. 

The BBC’s local radio stations already provide commentary for Premier League and EFL games, while its 39 local stations provide commentary as well as analysis programmes for multiple league teams each week.

Odgers Berndtson has appointed Julie McKeen as the firm’s new Head of Media.

The executive search firm says her appointment follows increasing demand for leadership roles across the entertainment and media sector, and will see McKeen work with broadcasters, content creators, and media agencies to place senior executives across c-suite positions, as well as senior creative, content and studio director roles. 

She joins the firm having held board advisor, brand strategy and marketing roles across global agency networks, D2C businesses, and consumer and platform businesses. 

Development company Argent Related has, together with Barnet Council, announced its vision for the £5 billion, 180-acre North London neighbourhood, Brent Cross Town, which the developer says will become a new sporting hub for the city.

According to Argent Related, Brent Cross Town is a new park town for London and will transform the area into an ‘inclusive, accessible town centre that will evolve to support the changing demands of modern life in a post-Covid world’. 

The regenerated area will also house a new hub for state-of-the-art sports and leisure facilities in the capital. READ MORE 

The British Gymnastics Foundation has announced a new fundraising initiative to raise funds for gymnasts impacted as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Foundation, with support from British Gymnastics, has provided funding for those in need in the past, but says more families applied for grants than ever before as a result of the pandemic. The Foundation, in partnership with British Gymnastics, made a special round of £110,000 funding available, and has already supported 332 grant recipients to date, with a total of £116,605 awarded so far to allow individuals to continue in the sport. 

British Gymnastics and the Foundation say the have been overwhelmed by the number of people applying for additional support. On average, the Foundation says it sees 20 applications for hardship grants every two months, but across the same time periods this year, 778 have been received, equating to six and a half years’ worth of applications. 

Extreme E has confirmed an additional Legacy Programme in Lac Rose, Senegal – one of its race locations.

The project will aim to improve sustainable practices in the local community and – in partnership with local community and environmental organisation GroupeSenghor, and Extreme E’s Senegal Legacy Partner to.org – will launch the EcoZone Project, a living-lab that addresses the communities primary needs while preserving the environment through experiential learning, regenerative agriculture and circular economy.

Eurosport has added former British number one Tim Henman to its line up of tennis pundits as it continues its coverage of the French Open at Roland-Garros.

Henman, a former semi-finalist in the tournament, will be based in London as part of Eurosport’s international coverage and will offer analysis from the mixed-reality Eurosport Cube studio.

London Marathon Events has opened the public ballot online entry system for the 2021 Virgin Money London Marathon.

The entry phase opened on Sunday 4th October, and is just the second time the race has opened its public ballot on race day. The online system will remain open for six days, closing at 17:00 BST on Friday 9th October. Results of the ballot will be announced in early January 2021.

The 40th Race saw a surprise victory from Ethiopian Shura Kitata in the men’s race, a win for pre-race favourite Brigid Kosgei in the women’s race and triumphs for Brent Lakatos and Nikita Den Boer in the respective wheelchair races. The event also saw 43,000 runners take part across the world in the first ever virtual London Marathon, with Official Timekeeper TAG Heuer providing official times for each of the runners.