MEDIA RELEASE
Sports News, 3rd August 2012
NEXTGEN SERIES AND EUROSPORT SIGN
FOUR-YEAR BROADCAST DEAL
The NextGen Series, the European club tournament showcasing football’s future stars, and Eurosport have today signed a four-year broadcast agreement running through to the 2015-2016 season. A minimum of 18 games will be televised live on the n°1 pan-European TV channel over the course of the 2012/2013 season, including group stages, play-offs, quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final.
Kicking off with Tottenham Hotspur vs. FC Barcelona on the 13th of September, the deal gives fans in 59 countries the chance to watch the rising stars of some of the world’s best clubs, including Chelsea, Arsenal, Juventus and Borussia Dortmund, battle it out for the NextGen Trophy, won last year by Inter Milan.
Commenting on the deal, NextGen Chief Executive Marcus Keane said:
"This partnership will now enable millions of fans from across Europe to watch the next generation of footballing stars compete for the NextGen trophy. This is a great step forward for the tournament and we are delighted to have signed with such a major broadcaster."
Julien Bergeaud, Director of Broadcasting and Programmes, Eurosport Group said:
“The NextGen Series is an exciting property added to our international youth football offering. We have broadcast the best FIFA and UEFA national team youth competitions for many years and now we have the best youth offer for clubs. We look forward to bringing the next generation of world-class footballers to our viewers in Europe.”
The group stage matches already confirmed for live broadcast on Eurosport are:
13th September – Tottenham Hotspur vs. FC Barcelona (20.00 CET)
26th September – Internazionale vs. Borussia Dortmund (19.00 CET)
3rd October – Vfl Wolfsburg vs. FC Barcelona (17.30 CET)
31st October – Juventus vs. Manchester City FC (19.00 CET)
7th November – Borussia Dortmund vs. Internazionale (18.00 CET)
19th December – Paris St. Germain vs. Juventus (17.00 CET) *TBC*
www.nextgenseries.com
Notes to Editors:
This deal was brokered by Future Media Services (UK) Ltd, on behalf of the NextGen Series.
FOR MORE MEDIA INFORMATION ON NEXTGEN PLEASE CONTACT MACLAURIN MEDIA:
020 8237 4604 / NEXTGEN@MACLAURINMEDIA.COM
ABOUT NEXTGEN:
The NextGen Series is a six month European competition featuring the finest youth football talent on the continent. Twenty-four of Europe’s elite football clubs are involved including FC Barcelona, Chelsea FC and Inter Milan.
Founded in August 2011, the NextGen Series was founded by Brentford Sporting Director Mark Warburton and TV Producer Justin Andrews. Having garnered worldwide coverage as a leading European football tournament the NextGen Series has expanded from 16 to 24 teams for next season.
ABOUT EUROSPORT GROUP:
The Eurosport Group is Europe's leading sports entertainment group. Eurosport, the n°1 pan-European TV channel, broadcasts in 20 languages and reaches 130 million homes across 59 countries. Eurosport HD is the high definition simulcast of Eurosport. Eurosport 2 broadcasts to 59 million households in 18 languages across 47 countries. Eurosport 2 HD was launched in August 2009. Eurosport Asia-Pacific reaches 17 countries in the region and launched an HD channel in September 2011. Eurosportnews is the sports news channel transmitted worldwide. Eurosport.com, Europe's n°1 online sports destination, has up to 19 million unique users per month (comScore) across an international network of sports websites in 11 languages, including Yahoo! co-branded sites in Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK. The Eurosport.com free mobile applications are available in 10 languages. Eurosport Player, Eurosport's web TV service, provides LIVE and on-demand sports to fans' PCs in 52 countries and the Player mobile application is available in up to 18 countries. Eurosport Events is the group's expert division in the management and promotion of international sporting events.