Geneva 10 August 2011 - A new four-year agreement reached with the International Skating Union (ISU) means the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) will exclusively manage European electronic media rights of all major ISU events until 2015. 

This is the first time the EBU has become the sole European media partner for all events in the ISU's championship portfolio, although cooperation between the EBU and the ISU goes back decades.

Under the agreement the ISU will work exclusively with the EBU on the exploitation of the media rights for 131 ISU events within the Eurovision broadcasting area on all distribution platforms, between autumn 2011 and spring 2015.

The four competition packages covered by the contract are: the ISU World and European Championships (27); ISU World Cups in Speed and Short Track Skating (52); the ISU Grand Prix Figure Skating (28) and a number of other ISU Championships, such as Synchronized, Junior and Four Continents Figure Skating, (24).

The ISU bundle is a significant complement to the EBU's substantial winter offering, and it will better enable broadcasters to develop more comprehensive winter sports programmes.

Stefan Kuerten, Director Sports & Business, EBU, says: "The contract between the EBU and the International Skating Union is further proof of the mutual trust in this longstanding relationship and of a shared belief in the importance of wide-reaching, free to air exposure for key sports like skating."

Ingolfur Hannesson, Head of Sports Rights, Winter Sports, EBU, adds: "We relish the opportunity to continue our first-rate cooperation with the ISU, which brings a substantial content offering of high profile events to all of our involved Members."

ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta said the increased number of ISU events under the agreement represents another positive step forward in the enduring cooperation between the EBU and the ISU.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU)
The EBU serves 85 national media organizations in 56 countries in and around Europe. It represents its Members and promotes the values and distinctiveness of public service media in Europe and around the world. The Eurovision and Euroradio networks deliver news, sports, events and music to EBU Members and other media organizations. Services to Members range from legal advice, technical standardization and development to coproduction and exchange of quality European content.  For more information about the EBU: www.ebu.ch and www.eurovision.net/

International Skating Union (ISU)
The International Skating Union (ISU) is the exclusive international winter sport federation, recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), administering ice skating sports throughout the world, namely Figure Skating, Ice Dance, Synchronized Skating, Speed Skating, and Short Track Speed Skating.   The ISU is currently composed of 85 individual national associations, which are Members of the ISU. The ISU was founded Scheveningen, Netherlands in 1892, making it the oldest international winter sport federation.  Its headquarters are now based in Lausanne, Switzerland. www.isu.org