Gravity Media has finalised a three-year deal to produce matchnight services for UEFA.
The services include highlights programming, digital content, commentaries and a live instant highlights show for all UEFA’s rights holding broadcasters at the major club competitions: UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and the inaugural UEFA Europa Conference League.
Gravity Media said the deal marks the continuation of a partnership that began with the first season of UEFA Champions League football in 1992/93.
The new agreement also brings an increase in production services, particularly on Thursday nights when Gravity Media’s production centre plays host to more than 120 editorial and technical staff, including 32 commentators delivering world feed commentary to broadcasters around the world.
To accommodate the increased demands on these matchnights, Gravity Media’s London Production Centre has been re-designed to include a new and extended multi-functional suite, which houses the VT operation and monitoring obligations, as well as additional commentary booths and galleries.
“With the expansion of the Europa Conference League and the increased requirements for fast turnaround production facilities and workflows, our new operational areas needed to offer a flexible suite of tools to enable our production teams to deliver the complex set of requirements for delivery of a bolstered UEFA matchnight operation,” said Nick Symes, Gravity Media director of technology. “The new facility occupies a newly refitted room and is equipped with flexible monitoring positions, dedicated talkback all integrated into high-specification technical furniture.”
“We are delighted to continue our relationship with UEFA for a further three years,” added Frank Callaghan, Gravity Media director of production and content for EMEA. “To be trusted with such a major contract is testament to our production and technical teams’ continued ability to deliver huge volumes of valuable content to a very high and consistent level.”