The International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM) has appointed UK-based production company Pro-Active Broadcast to manage and distribute its broadcast and web-stream output.
The two-year collaboration begins with the first round of the 2017 UIPM World Cup, which takes place in the US city of Los Angeles from February 23-27. The agreement covers all World Cup and World Championship events.
Pro-Active will create and distribute highlights programmes from all rounds of the World Cup, including the World Cup Final, as well as the Senior World Championships.
The company will also develop and co-ordinate a live-stream for the latter two competitions and will work closely with local organising committees to optimise coverage.
Tommasina Kay, senior project director at Pro-Active Broadcast, said: “This is an exciting project where we aim to raise and change the profile and interest levels in the core Olympic sport of modern pentathlon over the next two years. UIPM has taken great steps in the last few years and there is great potential to develop the sport as a broadcasting spectacle.”
UIPM secretary general Shiny Fang added: “UIPM presented modern pentathlon at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in a fresh and innovative way that attracted mass media attention on a different scale to previous Games. That said, we still see room for improvement in the presentation of our sports, especially in the way we tell the story of a modern pentathlon competition to a TV audience.”
Pro-Active said that international sports broadcaster Eurosport has committed to taking all available output from the UIPM. Pro-Active is now seeking to take the content worldwide and increase the web-streaming and social media output at each event.