MEDIA RELEASE 2014 / 2015 Wintersport Season Kicks-off LIVE on Eurosport Australia with Rights Extension Announcement. Sydney, 21 November – The Eurosport Group has signed a significant long-term agreement with Infront Sports & Media to consolidate its position as the reference channel for Wintersports and be the #HomeOfWintersports in Australia. Eurosport viewers will be able to enjoy the most comprehensive coverage of Wintersports events LIVE on TV and digital through to season 2020/2021. Eurosport, Europe's leading sports entertainment group, will continue to offer LIVE coverage of all FIS Alpine, Cross-Country, Nordic Combined, Ski Jumping, Freestyle and Snowboard World Cup competitions for five seasons from 2016/17 onwards. By retaining the World Championships in Alpine Skiing and Nordic Skiing for the 2019 and 2021 FIS Alpine and Nordic Skiing World Championships and the 2015 and 2017 FIS Snowboard and Freestyle Skiing World Championships in the agreement the channel will be covering over 200 events every season. Jean-Thierry Augustin, CEO of the Eurosport Group, said: “Eurosport demonstrates once more a clear commitment to invest in its role as the channel of reference for Wintersports. On a strategic level Eurosport continues to secure long-term agreements across its rights portfolio and to increase local exclusivities to provide the best content offer possible for viewers and commercial partners.” The events will feature on Eurosport Australia in HD with over 600 hours of broadcasting scheduled per season for the FIS World Cups on the channel. This weekend, Eurosport’s extensive coverage of Wintersports kicks-off with the commencement of the 2014 / 2015 FIS Ski Jumping World Cup season Sunday morning 23/11 LIVE at 1.45am AEDT from Klingenthal in Germany. Ski Jumping expert Martin Schmitt has joined the Eurosport commentary team and will offer unique and engaging analysis to fans throughout the season. The Olympic gold medallist was quick to offer a season preview and highlighted athletes to keep an eye on. “It’s always very difficult to predict a winner so early in the season,” Schmitt said. “My top three would include defending champion Kamil Stoch (Poland), Severin Freund and Richard Freitag (Germany) should all do very well this season.” Eurosport Australia will also be the home of the prestigious Four Hills Ski Jumping knock-out tournament which will commence on the 28/12 LIVE at 2.30am from Oberstdorf in Germany. Schmitt emphasised the unique nature of the event, and the elements that need to be mastered for an athlete to be crowned champion. “This tournament is really different to the rest of the Word Cup because it gathers many competitions, including qualifying rounds, in a very short period of time,” he said. “To win it, you need to be very focussed, self-confident, resistant and able to recover quickly during the small rest period you have, basically you need to be perfect in the first competition and hope you will keep this form until the end of the tournament. “From this point of view Richard Freitag is my favourite to win it this year.” Besides the ski jumping, Eurosport Australia is home for all things wintersport this season, showcasing the best winter athletes from home and abroad across a range of disciplines including alpine skiing, cross country skiing, biathlon, freestyle skiing and snowboard. The cross-country world cup season commences next Saturday 29/11 at 9.45pm AEDT LIVE from Kuusamo, Finland, while coverage of the alpine skiing season continues, with the next event at Lake Louise in Canada for the men and Aspen, USA for the women starting LIVE at 3.45am AEDT on 30/11. MEDIA RELEASE For fans of Australia’s snowboard cross contingent, they will be in action mid-January with the likes of Alex ‘Chumpy’ Pullin, Cameron Bolton, Belle Brockhoff and Jarryd Hughes making their way to the Snowboarding World Championships broadcast LIVE from 10pm AEDT on 16/1/2015. Summary of upcoming events on Eurosport in Australia: 2014 / 2015 FIS Ski Jumping Klingenthal, Germany 23/11 at 1.45am AEDT LIVE World Cup Cross-Country World Cup Kuusamo, Finland 29/11 at 9.45pm AEDT LIVE season Alpine Skiing World Cup Lake Louise, Canada (men) 30/11 at 3.45am AEDT LIVE Aspen, USA (women) Alpine Skiing World Cup Beaver Creek, USA 7/12 at 4.45am AEDT LIVE Biathlon World Cup Hochfilzen, Austria 12/12 at 9.15pm AEDT LIVE Ski Jumping World Cup Nizhny Tagil, Russia 13/12 at 2am AEDT LIVE Luge World Cup Calgary, Canada 13/12 at 9am AEDT LIVE Snowboard FIS World Cup Lake Louise, Canada (SBX) 21/12 at 4am AEDT LIVE Four Hills Ski Jumping Oberstdorf, Germany 28/12 at 2.30am AEDT LIVE Four Hills Ski Jumping Garmisch-Parten, Germany 31/12 at 11.45pm AEDT LIVE Snowboarding World Kreischberg, Austria 16/01/15 at 10pm AEDT LIVE Championships For up to date information about Eurosport’s coverage of the 2014 / 2015 Wintersport Season go to our website at au.eurosport.com ENDS * Times and schedules are subject to change. Times and Dates are AEDT. See http://tv.au.eurosport.com/ for details. ABOUT EUROSPORT GROUP This year Eurosport celebrates 25 years of leadership in live sports broadcasting and digital innovation.The Eurosport Group is Europe's leading sports entertainment group. In 2014, Discovery Communications, the world’s #1 pay-TV programmer, took controlling ownership of Eurosport, expanding its portfolio to reach 2.7 billion cumulative subscribers across more than 220 countries and territories. Eurosport, the n°1 pan-European TV channel, broadcasts in 20 languages and reaches 136 million homes across 54 countries. Eurosport HD is the high definition simulcast of Eurosport. Eurosport 2 broadcasts to 73 million households in 18 languages across 51 countries. Eurosport 2 HD was launched in August 2009. Eurosport Asia- Pacific reaches 16 countries in the region and launched an HD channel in September 2011. Eurosportnews is the sports news channel transmitted worldwide. Eurosport.com, Europe's n°1 online sports destination, has up to 23 million unique users per month (comScore) across an international network of sports websites in 11 languages, including Yahoo! co-branded sites in Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK. The Eurosport.com free mobile applications are available in 10 languages. Eurosport Player, Eurosport's online TV service, provides LIVE and on-demand sports to fans' PCs in 53 countries and the Player application is available for mobile, tablet and connected TV in up to 34 countries. Eurosport Events is the group's expert division in the management and promotion of international sporting events. About Eurosport in Australia Eurosport launched in Australia in November 2009 broadcasting its flagship channel on the Foxtel platform. Bringing over 3000 hours of first broadcast programming, of which 80% is shown LIVE, from around the world and showcasing more than 60 sports genres to sports fans in Australia, Eurosport provides variety and choice in sports viewing. Eurosport is available to Foxtel sports subscribers in HD and SD. For more information please contact: Roopa Fulivai, Eurosport Australia, 0411 708 740; David Lyall, Sports Communication Australia, 0403 777 026 .