World Chess Lands Eurosport Deal
World Chess has announced a three-year broadcast partnership with Eurosport to screen key moments and highlights of events, beginning with the ongoing FIDE World Chess Championship 2018.
The deal was announced alongside the 12-game World Chess Championship Match currently taking place in central London, which sees Norway’s Magnus Carlsen defend his title against American contender Fabiano Caruana.
It follows record-breaking viewing figures for the last World Championship match, held in New York in 2016, when the total global audience topped 1.5 billion people.
The new agreement with Eurosport will see the broadcaster screen a 52-minute feature programme and other short-form content.
World Chess, the commercial arm of the sport’s international federation, is hailing the deal as a commercial breakthrough, complementing the long-form broadcasts available as a pay-per-view service via its OTT platform.
A press release read: “Chess finally has developed a mix that will offer outstanding value for sponsors and partners and will allow generating revenue via Pay Per View.”
A part of the agreement, daily chess programming will be available on all of Eurosport’s linear TV channels in Europe and Asia during major events. A digital marketing programme will also be launched to target novice and amateur players who are keen to develop their skills.
Commenting on the announcement, CEO of World Chess Ilya Merenzon said: “Chess is very cool but it’s struggled to find a perfect format for television. Now we know how to do it and I am delighted with the great value we can deliver to our existing sponsors, as well as attract new ones. Chess has grown in popularity and now has 600 millions of players worldwide, and is incredibly popular among the most coveted audience – young and educated – especially as lends itself so well on smartphones.”
Laurent Prud’Homme, SVP rights acquisitions & syndication for Eurosport, added: “Chess is a growing sport with millions following and playing the game around the world, so we are delighted to bring the biggest events to Eurosport platforms for the next three years.
“We are committed to helping World Chess expand the game further and engage new audiences with our multi-platform coverage and digital promotion of the sport.”
World Chess claims the sport is gaining in global popularity, driven by the development of smartphones, with chess applications installed on more than one billion devices worldwide, according to YouGov data.
