VELUX EHF Champions League on TV

The steadily developing premium club handball competition, the VELUX EHF Men’s Champions League, has been producing positive results in the area of marketing the games for TV audiences. The 2009/10 season, including its highlight event, the VELUX EHF FINAL4, was yet another breakthrough on the TV market and the upcoming season will see a continued trend.

Increasing coverage

A careful analysis of the 2009/10 season was carried out by the German media company Global MMK in a total of 21 key TV markets. The results of this study show substantial increase in broadcast time and viewership figures compared to the relevant figures of the 2008/09 season.

The most impressive and significant data are the growth in the duration of the broadcasts from the competition and the total audience of the season. The broadcast time has grown by 322% respect to the previous year, which means that a total of 2,670 hours of EHF Men’s Champions League action was shown in the analysed territories.

The cumulative audience of the games has also increased significantly. In 2009/10, the games were followed by a total of 322 million viewers in the 21 analysed countries, which is also remarkable increase respect to a year earlier.

The most important game of the season proved to be the most exciting one for TV viewers. The Final of the EHF Men’s Champions League that took place on 30 May 2010 in Cologne between THW Kiel (GER) and F.C. Barcelona Borges (ESP) attracted a cumulative audience over 28.5 million in the aforementioned 21 countries.

New TV partner agreements

The marketing arm of the European Handball Federation has been striving to ensure the continued development in the area of TV broadcasts. EHF Marketing GmbH has just closed agreements with five TV partner companies on key TV markets. The agreements in Poland, Montenegro and Russia were reached with the involvement of the sportsman media group.

Romania

As of the 2010/11 season, Digisport Romania will be showing the games of the VELUX EHF Men’s Champions League and the European Cup. Digisport, TV platform of cable provider RCS & RDS in Romania, will broadcast on Digi Sport and Digi Sport plus.

Poland

A rapidly growing number of Polish handball fans will tune in to Polsat – Polsat Sport, Polsat Sport Ekstra – in the next season. The agreement with the new VELUX Men’s EHF Champions League broadcasting partner is seen as a major step in a very important market as the VELUX EHF Men’s Champions League　will be broadcast in high quality with a possibility to broadcast games on their HD channel, Polsat Sport HD　

Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina

A major player in the area, TV arenasport, will cover the VELUX Men’s EHF Champions League and the EHF Women’s Champions League in Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The sports channel will dedicate extensive coverage to the competitions on their four channels: arenasport 1, 2, 3 and 4. Arenasport will ensure great promotion for the EHF Champions League and focus primarily on the Bosnian champion in the men’s competition and on the strong Montenegrin champion in the Women’s CL.

Switzerland

The successful cooperation with the Schweizer Sportfernsehen　(SSF) will continue as a long-term agreement was signed for the territory of Switzerland. SSF will aim to promote the VELUX EHF Men’s Champions League for the Swiss fans, cover all matches of Swiss teams as well as the final games.

Russia

The　biggest pay TV platform in Russia –　NTV Sport – has agreed to prolong the broadcast deal for the games of the VELUX EHF Men’s Champions League. NTV Sport will offer a wide coverage for all Russian teams on their different sport channels as well as the production of all match broadcasts.

Media partner

The sportsman media group offers a number of services for EHF Marketing GmbH, and starting this season, the company will be the official signal distribution and coordination partner of all matches in the competition.

Spectacular highlights programme

The Austrian production company UNAS, an EHF Marketing GmbH partner, will produce a highlight magazine after each round of the VELUX EHF Men’s Champions League. The 17 editions will cover the entire season starting with the Group Phase until the VELUX EHF FINAL4. The viewers can enjoy the greatest moments of each round and get to know the players and clubs of the EHF Champions League.

Online in the focus

The ever growing community that follows the games of the EHF Champions League online are already accustomed to clicking on www.ehfTV.com, the free-of-charge online TV platform of the European Handball Federation. The next season will be even more exciting for the viewers with a number of new and special features added to the usual high quality service.

In the 2010/11 season over 100 events will be broadcast live, majority of them from the EHF Champions League. Special features and stories will appear on the web where fans can also follow draw events. The weekly highlight magazine will also be available online. From this season on, club pages and other partner websites can show some of the content available on ehfTV.com, ensuring a truly global reach for the EHF Champions League.

"Match of the Week" with live commentary in English

Another initiative is an English language commentary for the most exciting game of each round. The commentary will bring handball even closer to sports fans who otherwise have limited access to top quality handball games.