Infront Sports & Media
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Infront Sports & Media is a sports marketing company based in
Zug , neighboring_municipalities = Cham, Baar, Walchwil, Steinhausen, Unterägeri , twintowns = Fürstenfeld (Austria), Kalesija (Bosnia-Herzegowina) Zug (Standard German: , Alemannic German: ; french: Zoug it, Zugo r ...
,
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
. The company handles the media and marketing rights for international sports events and federations and also provides sports services - such as advertising, sponsorship and hospitality. It represents all seven Olympic winter sport federations, several summer sport organizations and manages media rights for the FIS World Cup Events. Infront was created in late 2002 through the integration of CWL, Prisma and KirchSportAG.


History

Infront Sports & Media was founded in October 2002 with FIFA as its core business as the company who sold the television and radio broadcasts for the
2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...
. The company originated from a merger of two existing Swiss-based marketing companies, CWL and Prisma Sports & Media. CWL was founded by
Cesar Lüthi Cesar W. Lüthi (6 September 1930 – 18 July 2002) was a Swiss international sports marketing businessman. He was the founder of CWL Telesport and Marketing, and was involved with advertising for the International Ice Hockey Federation, the Ge ...
, who sold the business to the
Kirch Group KirchGruppe (KirchGroup) was a German media group founded by Leo Kirch (1926–2011) in the 1960s. By 2000, it controlled a 52.5 percent stake in what would become the country's biggest broadcaster. The group collapsed in 2002 largely due to the ...
. In 2005 the company lost the right to resell the TV and radio rights in Europe, though it retained the ability to sell Asian rights, as part of a division of the rights by FIFA. Infront subsidy HBS won the contract to manage the TV and radio broadcast production. Two months later, the company hired President and CEO Phillippe Blatter, to replace departing chief Oscar Frei. The appointment of Blatter, who is the nephew of
Sepp Blatter Joseph "Sepp" Blatter (born Josef Blatter; 10 March 1936) is a Swiss former football administrator who served as the eighth President of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participating in FIFA activities since 2015 as a result of ...
, the then President of
FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
, was criticized by author Andrew Jennings and Transparency International. During this time as chief executive, Phillippe Blatter was able to grow the company's revenues. Until 2011 it was owned by a consortium of shareholders. In September 2011 – European private equity firm Bridgepoint reached an agreement to acquire the company. In February 2015, Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda won an auction to purchase Infront from Bridgepoint for more than €1 billion. In November of that same year, it was announced that Infront would merge with the
World Triathlon Corporation The World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) is a sports event promotion company owned by conglomerate Advance Publications, that produces the Ironman Triathlon, Ironman 70.3, the 5150 series of triathlon races, and other sports events. History In De ...
(including the latter's Ironman brand) to form the Wanda Sports division.


Services

Infront Sports & Media has 1000 employees in 14 countries. Infront Sports & Media supports media rights distribution, marketing concepts and sponsorship sales for sporting events as well as media production (host broadcasting, post production and archive management). Infront's subsidiary, Host Broadcast Services (HBS), manages television and radio signals for broadcasters at sports events such as the FIFA World Cup. Infront subsidiary, Omnigon helps sports and media companies, such as NASCAR, to develop mobile apps and websites. As of May 2018, EHF(European Handball Federation) expands 25-year-long partnership with Infront, runs to 2030. On 4 June 2018, Infront announced the acquisition of leading European obstacle course event organiser XLETIX GmbH in a move that extends its footprint in the growing personal and corporate fitness sector. In July 2018, Infront and FIDAL, the Italian Athletics Federation, announced a six-year partnership on Friday which will run until 2024. The agreement unveiled at a press conference in Rome, will see Infront and FIDAL collaborate at all levels of the federation's events and projects.


Notable work

Infront Sports & Media represents all seven Olympic winter sport federations, including the IIHF for ice hockey and the IBU for biathlon. It also manages media and/or marketing rights to most of the FIS World Cup events. In summer sports, Infront started supporting mass participation and endurance sports in 2011, including
Ironman Iron Man, Ironman or Ironmen may refer to: *Nathaniel "Iron Man" Avery (1939–1985), American caddie for Arnold Palmer *Travis Fulton (1977–2021), American mixed martial arts fighter *Gunnar Graps (1951–2004), Estonian musician *Mick Murphy ...
events and the UCI World Championships in cycling. It is also a partner for the EHF EURO in handball and the CEV European Championships in Volleyball. In China, Infront represents the Chinese Basketball Association tournament and the national team, Team China Basketball. Infront's HBS subsidiary was awarded the Judge's award at the 2010 International Broadcasting Convention for its work helping FIFA broadcast the World Cup in stereoscopic 3D. In football, Infront has supported the FIFA World Cup since 2002. It distributes the Asian media rights and manages the host broadcast production. In 2011, Transparency International asked Fifa to be more open about possible conflicts of interest, when it was discovered that the President of Infront was Philippe Blatter, nephew to the President of Fifa, Sepp Blatter. Fifa said Blatter was not involved in awarding the deal to Infront. Infront also works with the
German Football Association The German Football Association (german: Deutscher Fußball-Bund ; DFB ) is the governing body of football in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and is in charge of t ...
(DFB), the Italian Lega Serie A and the Indonesian,
Indonesia Super League Liga 1 ( en, League 1), also known as BRI Liga 1 for sponsorship reasons with Bank Rakyat Indonesia, is the men's top professional football division of the Indonesian football league system. Administered by the PT Liga Indonesia Baru (), Liga 1 i ...
. In 2016 Infront with Omnigon collaborated on several projects including digital services to the Serie A and mobile app development for the German Football Association's DFB Cup.http://deadline.com/2016/01/wanda-infront-sports-media-build-digital-muscle-buys-omnigon-1201686858/ Wanda's Infront Builds Digital Sports Muscle With Acquisition of Omnigon by David Lieberman 20 January 2016 Retrieved 9 February 2017http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2016/01/20/Finance/Infront.aspx Infront Sports & Media Acquires Controlling 51% Equity Interest in Omnigon 20 January 2016 Retrieved 9 February 2017


Notable employees

*
Harald Griebel Harald Griebel (born 1939 or 1940) is a German retired sports marketing businessman. Griebel was employed by Cesar Lüthi at CWL Telesport and Marketing, Infront Sports & Media and Kirch Group. He worked to market and develop the Ice Hockey Wor ...
, developed marketing for the Ice Hockey World Championships from 1981 to 2008.


References


External links

*
Host Broadcast Services
{{DEFAULTSORT:Infront Sports and Media Companies based in Zug Mass media companies established in 2002 Sports management companies Mass media companies of Switzerland Privately held companies of Switzerland Mass media in Zug 2002 establishments in Switzerland Sports marketing Dalian Wanda Group Sports mass media in Switzerland Companies established in 2002