International Media Content, parent company of pay-television broadcaster SportsMax and a subsidiary of telecommunications group Digicel, has acquired exclusive broadcast rights in the Caribbean to the 2018 winter Olympics in PyeongChang and the 2020 summer Games in Tokyo.
IMC has acquired the broadcast rights on all media platforms in all languages in 22 territories. They are: Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Cooperative Republic of Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, and Turks and Caicos.
Under the deal with the International Olympic Committee, IMC will partner with broadcasters across the region and leverage all of Digicel’s platforms to deliver live coverage and highlights of the Olympic Games via free-to-air and cable television, as well as all mobile, streaming and other digital media platforms. In addition, the two parties will work together on distribution and content creation for the IOC’s soon-to-be-launched Olympic Channel.
The Olympic Games will return to IMC after it previously served as the IOC’s broadcast partner in the Caribbean for the 2012 summer Olympics, along with the 2010 and 2014 winter Games. Canoc Broadcasting Inc., a company formed by sports bodies in the Caribbean for handling media rights for major properties, acquired media rights for the forthcoming 2016 summer Olympic Games in November 2013.
Olly McIntosh, IMC managing director and chief executive for SportsMax, said: “This demonstrates the confidence that the IOC has in the strength of our broadcast and production capabilities, the numerous distribution platforms across TV broadcast, mobile, online and cable TV through Digicel Group – as well as the strong relationships IMC has with regional broadcasters that will allow us to offer the Caribbean unprecedented access to the Olympics and the Olympic Channel.”