EBU extends wrestling federation partnership

The Fédération Internationale des Luttes Associées, the international wrestling federation, has agreed a new global rights deal with the European Broadcasting Union, the consortium of public-service broadcasters.

The deal covers the media rights for all of the federation’s major events, across all platforms, for four years, from 2013 to 2016. The EBU has the rights both inside its own footprint in Europe, and outside of Europe. The press release announcing the deal said the consortium will “assist FILA in media rights sales”.

The deal covers four European championships and three world championships, with men’s and women’s Greco-Roman and freestyle disciplines contested at each event.

The deal extends a co-operation between the two parties that stretches back to 1988.

“This long-standing cooperation is driven by the excellent international wrestling federation, their championships and the recent multi-services approach of the EBU. This approach provides sports federations with a platform of continuous growth within the challenging and competitive marketplace of sports and media,” Ingolfur Hannesson, head of indoor sports at the EBU, said.