Major boost for equestrian sport in Switzerland with long-term partnership between FEI and UPC’s new sports channel

The Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) and UPC today announced a new long-term partnership, bringing the very best of equestrian sport from both the FEI’s Olympic and non-Olympic disciplines to the audiences of UPC’s new sports broadcast venture, MySports.

The new channel is scheduled to launch at the beginning of September 2017 offering a wealth of sporting content, and with the volume and variety of equestrian sport that will be featured, it is expected to quickly develop into the go-to destination for equestrian enthusiasts in Switzerland.

Coverage will include live transmissions of the most prestigious FEI events around the world, starting with the 2017/18 seasons of the Longines FEI World Cup™ Jumping and FEI World Cup™ Dressage. It will also span across an impressive number of other FEI series and Championships, including FEI Nations Cup™ Jumping, FEI World Cup™ Driving and FEI World Cup™ Vaulting. The content offered to Swiss audiences also boasts an exciting package of FEI magazine programming, including FEI’s monthly flagship magazine, FEI Equestrian World.

The new partnership, which was brokered in close cooperation with FEI’s broadcast rights distribution partner IMG, runs through to 2022 and will see a combination of free-to-air and paid for coverage, plus highlights feature from global events, significantly increasing the broadcast footprint for equestrian sport in Switzerland.

MySports will offer high quality and innovative live sport entertainment with its own editorial team in all language regions across Switzerland. More than three million households will have access to the channel, following collaboration with the SUISSEDIGITAL association, whose members include cable operators across the country.

“This is an exciting development, which we are very pleased to be able to bring to equestrian fans”, FEI Commercial Director Ralph Straus said. “It will enable them to follow all the top competition action across a range of disciplines, with a very healthy portion of the content coming free-to-air. The FEI has an impressive portfolio of broadcast partners around the globe reaching out to millions of equestrian sports fans and UPC are a great addition to this. We are always striving to grow our reach so are pleased to be part of this new and innovative venture coming to the Swiss TV and media market.”

MySports Director of Programming Steffi Buchli said: “Equestrian events are very popular in Switzerland, particularly as Swiss athletes often take part at the very top level. We are delighted that we will soon be able to bring equestrian highlights from all over the world into the homes of the numerous fans in Switzerland, live and exclusively on MySports.”

Notes to Editors:

About Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) www.fei.org

The FEI is the world governing body for horse sport recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and was founded in 1921. Equestrian sport has been part of the Olympic movement since the 1912 Games in Stockholm.

The FEI is the sole controlling authority for all international events in the Olympic sports of Jumping, Dressage and Eventing, as well as Driving, Endurance, Vaulting and Reining.

The FEI became one of the first international sports governing bodies to govern and regulate global para sport alongside its seven able-bodied disciplines when Para-Equestrian Dressage joined its ranks in 2006. The FEI now governs all international competitions for Para-Equestrian Dressage and Para-Driving.

About UPC

UPC is a leading provider of communication and entertainment in Austria and Switzerland. The company offers over two million residential and business customers fast and simple connectivity to the digital world via optical fibre cable – at home and on the go. The subsidiary of British-based Liberty Global generated revenue of CHF 425 million by the end of the first quarter of 2017, with more than 2,500 employees from 56 countries. Further information about our company and how we impress our customers is available at: upc.ch/about and upc.at/about