NAN-S-18
Taekwondo
By Kemi Ajayi
Lagos, Jan. 19, 2017 (NAN) The World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) and SBS Sports have extended their South Korean broadcasting partnership to 2020, WTF President, Chungwon Choue announced on Thursday.
According to an online portal, Insidethgames, the deal will extend the existing relationship between the sport’s governing body and SBS, a terrestrial broadcasting channel.
It said that the previous deal which was from 2015 to 2016 has been extended for another four years.
The publication said that Choue, who signed the deal with SBS Sports chief executive, Gyehong Kim, in Seoul, was pleased with the prospect of working with the broadcaster.
“Some 400 million TV viewers in 17 nations watched Olympic Taekwondo at Rio in 2016, which suggests a massive global appetite for televised taekwondo.
It is up to us in the WTF to deliver a better taekwondo event in the coming years.
“This is in terms of fairness, transparency, dazzle and excitement for the cameras of SBS Sports and our host broadcasters,’’ it quoted Choue as saying.
It said that under the agreement, SBS Sports would film and broadcast the WTF’s Grand Prix series, World Championships and World Team Championships to viewers across South Korea.
The portal added that the first event to be covered under the contract would be the Grand Prix Series 1 event in 2017, while the World Team Championships in 2020 is expected to be the last event.
It recalled that the SBS Sports worked on the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic taekwondo and archery competitions, with the WTF praising their credentials. (NAN)
KOA/ENN/PDE
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(Edited by Edwin Nwachukwu/Peter Ejiofor)