Spirit of the sport and the competition
The FIS Ski World Cup events are the ultimate in ski competition, aside from the unique role of the Winter Olympic Games. Considered by many to be the most valuable title in winter sports, the FIS World Cup demands an extremely high level of performance in the respective disciplines throughout the season - not just in one single competition.
The 2011/2012 FIS Alpine and Nordic Ski World Cup races will be held between October and March, across 19 countries: Andorra, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA.
Rights opportunities
Infront Sports & Media is the commercial partner of most national skiing federations that host the FIS Alpine, Cross Country, Ski Jumping, Nordic Combined, Snowboard and Freestyle Skiing World Cup events. Additionally, starting from the 2011/2012 season the Women’s FIS Ski Jumping World Cup will also be added to the Infront portfolio. Managing the media and/or marketing rights of more than 90% of the FIS World Cup events on a collective basis, Infront ensures the effective co-ordination of television coverage, high broadcast standards and an exciting television showcase for the competition. It has extended its international media rights contracts with most national skiing associations until 2015/2016, which is an impressive indicator of future stability.
Infront also offers access to an extraordinary range of archive footage, taking advantage of its close to 20 year relationship with the FIS Skiing events. It can produce tailored programmes for broadcasters on request.
Media production prospects
Taking a long term perspective, Infront is developing the FIS properties as a coherent, high-level television entertainment product. A top quality world feed is produced to FIS TV Standards - developed to suit each discipline individually. This is also in line with the FIS objective of raising audience interest in the races and the continuity of the competition - in particular among a younger audience.
Additional specialist resources applied by Infront also include management, consulting and operational teams based in Austria, Finland, Italy and Switzerland as well as host broadcast experience through Infront Production and Infront Advanced Media Solutions.
All races are offered live and/or delayed and increasingly in full HD production quality. In addition, Infront produces and distributes weekly TV magazine programmes throughout the winter season including the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Report, the Snowboard FIS World Cup Magazine and the Freestyle FIS World Cup Magazine.
Each magazine series is made up of a number of shows (18 for Alpine Skiing, 17 for Snowboarding and 15 for Freestyle Skiing) with each 25 minute show featuring race action, interviews, profiles of top competitors, venue presentations, backstage shots and items of interest from the world’s top winter sports resorts. The programmes are available via satellite, tape or FTP download and include English voiceover on a separate track – full English scripts are also supplied.
Background appeal
The 2010/2011 FIS Alpine and Nordic Ski World Cup Season reached a total cumulative TV audience of 8 billion worldwide with a total of almost 5,000 broadcast hours.
Upcoming Events
FIS Alpine Ski World Cup
October 2011 — March 2012
FIS Cross Country World Cup
November 2011 — March 2012
FIS Ski Jumping World Cup
November 2011 — March 2012
FIS Nordic Combined World Cup
November 2011 — March 2012
FIS Snowboard World Cup
August 2011 — March 2012
FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup
December 2011 — March 2012
