World broadcaster meeting underway in Kazan in lead-up to 2015 FINA World Championships

The event brought together representatives of 8 television companies with headquarters in 6 countries (Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, USA) and an aggregate audience of over 3 billion viewers.   

At the very beginning of the meeting, its participants were greeted by Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports of the Republic of Tatarstan, Vladimir Leonov, and Director General of the Executive Directorate for Sports Projects, Azat Kadyrov. 

"The FINA World Championships are the most important project of the upcoming year. It's one of the major sporting events in terms of the number of athletes, attendance and television viewship, global attention. We will make every effort to stage it to the highest standard and to ensure that the global television audience will see our Kazan, the city of sports and culture," Vladimir Leonov said. He also mentioned that the meeting is taking place in the Kazan Arena Stadium, the largest venue of the upcoming international aquatics event.  

Azat Kadyrov stated that broadcast coverage of the FINA World Championships is a top-priority task given that the event's cumulative TV audience is expected to reach 4.5 billion viewers worldwide. "I hope that thanks to you our championships will be broadcast into homes of people around the world," he said. 

The WBM meeting will feature a number of specialised presentations by OC speakers on planned broadcaster services. The rights-holding broadcasters will also discuss technical aspects regarding onsite broadcast operations and tour compeititon venues and hotels.