Lima 2019 Lands TV Broadcast Deal

(ATR) Hours after the latest visit of continental sports leaders, Lima 2019 announces on Thursday the company in charge of televising the event.

The transnational Mediapro will be responsible for broadcasting all sports competitions, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies at the Pan American and Parapan Am Games in the summer of 2019.

The president of the Organizing Committee (COPAL), Carlos Neuhaus, tellsAround The Rings that it was "an open and transparent process"developed under the Government to Government Agreement with the United Kingdom.

Mediapro is considered one of the most significant audiovisual groups in Europe with more than 60 companies divided into three major areas: content, sports rights and audiovisual services.

The company will be present at the Russia 2018 World Cup, with more than 400 professionals and 35 mobile units to offer services to 15 international channels.

For Lima 2019, there will be an average of 10 hours of programming produced per day. Each sporting discipline will be covered by an average of 15 cameras.

"Within the budget that we have, we have managed to reconcile with PanAm Sports the issue of transmissions, ensuring that all sports qualifiers to Tokyo 2020 are duly covered," Neuhaus told ATR.

PanAm Sports Delegation Visits Lima

The secretary general of PanAm Sports, Ivar Sisniega, confirms to ATRthat his delegation held talks with COPAL on the budget, the television broadcasts, and the opening and closing ceremonies during a three-day visit.

Sisniega tells ATR that the Lima 2019 sports program could have "some slight changes to maximize and have the highest number of live sports but those changes will be reported later".

He clarified that "there will be no major changes in the program ... everything is still standing".

According to Neuhaus, "we are in the stage of launching some ideas" about an opening ceremony that summarizes artistically "the history of 4,000 years of Lima" in addition to that of Peru and the Americas.

"We are at the moment hiring the company that is in charge of production," the Peruvian official said. "We are reconciling everything and adjusting some things so that we are all reasonably satisfied, and within the budget."

"Do not forget that we use state money, and we have to be responsible for it to be used efficiently," he insisted.

Neuhaus accompanied the delegation of Panam Sports to a tour of the Pan American Village and the rest of the main sports venues under construction.

Sisniega, who last visited in March, was accompanied on this occasion by Coordination Commission president Keith Joseph (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), Coordination Commission member Alain Jean Pierre (Haiti), and Michael Fennell (Jamaica), president of the Technical Commission.

COPAL showed the visitors a sample of the furnished apartments in the future Pan American Village.

"We liked them" said Sisniega, who added"The athletics stadium, the water complex and the velodrome are very advanced" and that the project had made "a lot of progress in terms of the sports infrastructure".

He described the visit as "very productive" and said that PanAm Sports has "a very optimistic vision" of the preparations, with 427 days until the opening of the Pan American Games and 456 days to the start of the Parapan Am Games.

He said that when the delegates of the 41 NOCs attend the General Assembly in Lima next September, they will be told that in Peru "serious work is being done for a good Games".

Reported by Miguel Hernandez.