Expect to see more world class Judo on British TV
You may have missed it, but on 22 August, on the eve of the 2015 World Championships, the International Judo Federation signed a new TV partnership with BT Sport.
Mr. Marius Vizer, the IJF President said, “We are delighted that BT Sport has become our British broadcast partner for the World Championships of Judo. BT Sport has shown a remarkable liveliness and vigour in its promotion of sports since it came on the scene, and in many ways this matches Judo’s own ambitions to be fully recognised as a premier brand around the world. This has been achieved in many countries including Britain’s neighbour, France. But – despite judo’s proud history in the Olympic Games and its popularity with many generations of young people – judo has received too little television coverage in recent years in Britain. We are sure this is the start of a major swing towards judo being recognised in British households as a gripping and very exciting television sport for young and not-so-young alike.”
“From our point of view, the timing could not be better. BT Sport is launching its exclusive live coverage of the UEFA Champions League in mid-September, and the first four half-hour judo highlights programmes will launch the very next week at peak viewing times. Perfect.”
The IJF has gone through a tremendous evolution over the past years and judo is more and more available on TV and on internet. The IJF is delighted to count on board new TV partners for the World Championships and the World Judo Tour: KBS Sport (Korea), CCTV4 (China), DD Sport (India), NTV Plus (Russia), IRIB (Iran), BOETS TV (Russia, Baltic countries, Republics), TRT (Turkey) and Armenian TV, along with new presence in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Buthan, Nepal, North Korea and Sri Lanka.
Existing TV partners inclube: C1 TV station – DIGI Sport – Sport 1 – Al-Jazeera Sport – Euronews – RTV Slovenia – BeIn Sport – Sport5 – The Fight Network – AZTV – Fuji TV — J Sports – Georgian Public Broadcaster – Sport TV – NOS – National TV and Radio Company of Uzbekistan – VRT – RTBF – Eurovision – SPTV – TVE – Kaz Sport – ZDF – Cuban TV-ICRT – Fight Klub – ORF – Fox Sports Africa – Setanta – Ceska TV – Esporte Interativo – TyC Sports – RAI.
The events are also available on internet through www.ippon.tv, www.youtube.com/judo, sportdeutschland.tv (Germany), fightsports.tv (South East Asia).
This is excellent news for the Judo fraternity, and can only help to grow our sport. Just a shame that a major free to view channel such as BBC or ITV didn’t pick it up, which would have increased coverage even further.
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