LONDON: World Chess has confirmed a three-year broadcast partnership with Eurosport, the number one sports destination in Europe, to screen key moments and highlights commencing with the FIDE World Chess Championship 2018. The announcement comes during the World Chess Championship Match that is taking place in Central London.
The 12-game match will see current World Chess Champion, Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, defend his title against USA contestant Fabiano Caruana. The last World Championship match, held in New York, in 2016, enjoyed record-breaking coverage with the media reach for the whole event topping 1.5 billion people.
Chess landing a TV exposure has been long overdue as broadcasters have struggled to show chess in a way that appeals to mass audiences. Eurosport, however, does this perfectly, elevating such sports as darts and snooker and making them truly a spectator property. World Chess plans to work with Eurosport to see this through for chess as well.
The deal with Eurosport, which will see the multi-platform broadcaster screen a 52-minute feature programme and other short-form content, is a major success for chess on the way to become a true spectator sport. With the short format that sports broadcasting is famous for as, well as long live broadcasts which are offered as pay-per-view on the official website, worldchess.com, the game has developed a mix that will offer outstanding value for sponsors and partners and generate revenue from television viewership.
Daily chess programming will be available on all of Eurosport’s linear TV channels in Europe and Asia during major events. A digital marketing program will also be launched to target novice and amateur players who are keen to learn and develop their chess skills.
World Chess CEO Ilya Merenzon commented: “Chess is very cool but it’s struggled to find a perfect format for television. Now we know how to do it and I am delighted with the great value we can deliver to our existing sponsors, as well as attract new ones. Chess has grown in popularity and now has 600 millions of players worldwide, and is incredibly popular among the most coveted audience — young and educated — especially as lends itself so well on smartphones.”
Eurosport SVP – Rights Acquisitions & Syndication, Laurent Prud’Homme said: “Chess is a growing sport with millions following and playing the game around the world, so we are delighted to bring the biggest events to Eurosport platforms for the next three years. We are committed to helping World Chess expand the game further and engage new audiences with our multi-platform coverage and digital promotion of the sport.”
All existing and future sponsors of the World Chess Championship cycle will have access to the Eurosport exposure, hugely increasing their sponsorship value.
World Chess is now in position to deliver very specific and measured audience numbers to partners before the events commence. Also, sponsors are able to buy in Eurosport coverage via advertising, activating their chess sponsorship.
