- Another successful co-operation between Euroleague Basketball and Infront Sports & Media -

Zug, Switzerland, 4 May 2007 – Infront Advanced Media Solutions, a division of Infront Sports & Media, is producing a dedicated online broadcast service for the Euroleague Basketball Final Four in Athens on the 4th and 6th of May 2007.

All games are available live and delayed, over the Internet on www.euroleague.net, making global viewing possible. The service is provided in co-operation with the Euroleague Basketball, through its official website. In parallel to this service Infront is offering a dedicated live Internet broadcast of 2007 IIHF World Championships, which are currently taking place in Russia.

The 5th staging of the Euroleague Baskteball Final Four – to decide the European club champion – will involve Panathinaikos Athens (GRE), Tau Ceramica Vitoria (ITA), Unicaja Malaga (ESP) and CSKA Moscow (RUS).

Infront is providing this service with the help of its new, dedicated IP broadcast platform. Individual matches will cost €2.50 and the package of all four games is €6.95. Some countries will be geo-blocked and in some only an “on demand” service will be made available. The geo-blocked countries are Italy, UK, Ireland, Israel Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and France.

In China the service is widely promoted through the official website of CBA League (www.CBA.com.cn) and Sohu.com. China’s premier online brand will raise awareness for the service to fans in the country by offering all games on its dedicated sports channel, promoting quality of Euroleague basketball.

Successful co-operation
This new media agreement is part of a wider co-operation between Infront and the Euroleague, focused on the development of basketball in China, where Infront is the exclusive marketing partner to the Chinese Basketball Association at both League and national team level.

As part of this relationship, Infront has facilitated the sale of Euroleague Basketball’s television rights for the Final Four in China. As a result, the event is to be broadcast for first time in China, exclusively on the sports channel CCTV-5. The agreement brings Euroleague Basketball to the forefront of leading brands looking towards China as a present and future partner. It will help the country's fans acquaint themselves with Euroleague Basketball and increase the awareness of the partnership between Euroleague Basketball and the Chinese Basketball Association.

As part of this relationship, Infront has facilitated the sale of Euroleague Basketball’s television rights for the Final Four in China. As a result, the event is to be broadcast for first time in China, exclusively on the sports channel CCTV-5. The agreement brings Euroleague Basketball to the forefront of leading brands looking towards China as a present and future partner. It will help the country's fans acquaint themselves with Euroleague Basketball and increase the awareness of the partnership between Euroleague Basketball and the Chinese Basketball Association.

In the build up of this partnership, both professional leagues agreed to offer Chinese fans a tremendously exciting basketball experience – the historic Euroleague Basketball/Team China tournament to take place in China from October 1-3, 2007. This was announced in March during a joint Euroleague Basketball, CBA and Infront press conference in Beijing. CSKA Moscow and Benetton Treviso will be the Euroleague Basketball representatives in the tournament.

“Euroleague Basketball is very excited about this collaboration between CBA, Infront and Euroleague", said Jordi Bertomeu, CEO of Euroleague Basketball. "The collaboration allows for the game of basketball to grow in the world through a series of actions, seminars and games in the following months. This agreement would not have been possible without our partner Infront who will be assisting us with the commercialization of the television rights of Euroleague Basketball games."

John Kristick, Infront’s Executive Director Asia, said: “Infront’s co-operation with the Euroleague Basketball – arranged by our ‘Gateway China’ resource – has grown very quickly over the past months, based on the successful projects focused on developing basketball in China. It is very rewarding for us to extend this working relationship by providing tailored new media services on a worldwide basis, in particular for such an exiting event like the Euroleague Final Four.”


For further information, please contact:

Jörg Polzer
Manager, Communication & PR
Infront Sports & Media AG
Tel. +41-41-723 15 15
Fax +41-41-723 15 16
press@infrontsports.com
www.infrontsports.com