Alexis Vapaille, broadcasting rights manager at the International Paralympic Committee, has left his role after working for eight years at the Bonn-based world governing body.
Vapaille, who has been involved in broadcast rights sales for the Paralympic Games and the IPC’s various World and European Championships, is expected to take up another role in the industry.
In his role at the IPC, he has also been 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.
The IPC has taken increased control of broadcast rights sales to the Paralympics in recent editions, beginning with the sale of rights to Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016 on behalf of the respective organising committees. Before then, the rights were sold directly by the organising committees themselves.
Major broadcast deals signed by the IPC commercial team in recent years have included a pan-European deal (excluding Russia and the UK) with the European Broadcasting Union consortium and a new deal with UK free-to-air commercial broadcaster Channel 4. Both agreements covered the 2018 winter Paralympics in PyeongChang and the now postponed 2020 summer Paralympics in Tokyo.
A distribution deal in Asia was also signed with the Singapore-based agency Reddentes Sports. That agreement covers Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.