Eurovision Sport, the sports arm of the European Broadcasting Union, has recruited Alexis Vapaille, broadcasting rights manager at the International Paralympic Committee, as sports project manager, summer sports.
Vapaille has left the IPC after eight years at the Bonn-based world governing body to take up the new position in Geneva.
As sports project manager, summer sports, Vapaille will support Andreas Aristodemou, Eurovision Sport’s head of summer sports rights, in rights acquisition processes, negotiations with rights-holders and discussions with broadcasters.
Eurovision Sport’s summer sports rights portfolio includes agreements with world and European bodies such as athletics’ IAAF and European Athletics, aquatics’ Fina and LEN, canoeing’s ICF and rowing’s Fisa, along with the multi-sport European Championships.
Aristodemou said today (Wednesday): “We are delighted to welcome Alexis to Eurovision Sport. Alexis adds valuable expertise to the team from his past role at the IPC, as well as enthusiasm and energy. I look forward to working with him and the team at Eurovision Sport in strengthening the relationships with our existing partners and hopefully enlarging our existing summer sports portfolio.”
Eurovision Sport recently underwent a change of leadership as Glen Killane became executive director, taking over from the long-serving Stefan Kürten.
There was a restructure of the EBU’s sports department in 2018 as the acquisitions responsibilities were no longer split by summer and winter sports. This came after the exits of summer sports head Julien Ternisien (to the Infront agency) and the retirement of winter sports chief Ingolfur Hannesson (who now works as a consultant to Infront).
The rebrand of the EBU’s sports arm to Eurovision Sport then followed at the start of 2019.
At the IPC, Vapaille was involved in broadcast rights sales for the Paralympic Games and the IPC’s various World and European Championships. He was also responsible for the day-to-day account management of IPC broadcast partners.
Commercial operations at the IPC are headed up by Alexis Schaefer, the commercial and marketing director.