ICF – Chinese Broadcasting Deal

The International Canoe Federation has extended its partnership with China’s number one streaming platform, guaranteeing the sport a presence in the region until after the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

The deal with Huya will run until December 2024, extending an arrangement which has already taken canoe sports into millions of Chinese households.

The ICF will extend its four-year partnership with Lausanne-based H&A Media, who will continue to manage the platform’s broadcast of major international slalom and flatwater canoeing events, with the support of the Chinese Canoe Association.

“China is a very important market for the ICF, and we were thrilled to have record-breaking audience figures in the China market for coverage of canoe and kayak events at Tokyo 2020,” said ICF Digital and Marketing Manager, Adam Collins. 

“It is essential we have continued strong media visibility to build on this momentum as we embark on the next Olympic cycle.

“In 2019, half of ICF’s main televised events took place in China, and a good showing of strong Chinese paddlers helped us achieve 30.1 million viewers across six events broadcast on Huya. In 2021, despite no events taking place in China and virtually no Chinese paddlers, we still attracted 11.52 million viewers on the platform.   

In 2021 931,369 Chinese viewers turned to Huya to watch sprint paddler Zhang Dong qualify for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

“The data and audience feedback over the past three years gives us confidence that Huya as a youth-orientated digital platform, will help drive audiences for our sport,” Collins said.

“Live-streaming offers immediate and accurate audience feedback on the popularity of international sports properties into the China market,” H&A Media Managing Director Guy Horne said.

“Between our Lausanne and Beijing teams, Huya TV and ICF event organisers, we have created a model which is generating long-term growth for canoeing.”
ENDS

About the cooperation
The live streaming on Huya TV will be free of charge to audiences
2022 will be the fourth year of cooperation between ICF and Huya for broadcast

About ICF
The international governing body for canoeing, with its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Responsible for the Olympic disciplines of canoe sprint, paracanoe and canoe slalom.

Responsible for the non-Olympic disciplines of extreme slalom, canoe marathon, ocean racing, canoe freestyle, canoe polo, canoe wild water, stand up paddling.

About H&A Media 
H&A Media is a broadcast, media and communications company based in Lausanne, Switzerland with a presence in Beijing and produces tailored sports media content for international federations, rights-holders and destinations, with a strong focus on Asian markets.

Website: www.hamedia.ch   LinkedIn: handamedia 

About Huya 
HUYA Inc (虎牙直播) is a leading live streaming platform in China and is listed on the NYSE  since 2018.  China. In the third quarter of 2021, the mobile monthly active user number of Huya Inc. reached 85.1 million, nearly 15 percent increase from the corresponding quarter in the previous year. 

HUYA Website: https://www.huya.com/

ICF > Huya TV planned 2022 live streaming and VOD event schedule:
21-22 May, 2022, Racice, Czech Republic, ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup 1
28-29 May, 2022, Poznan, Poland, ICF Canoe Sprint & Paracanoe World Cup 2
11-12 June, 2022, Prague, Czech Republic, ICF Canoe Slalom and Extreme World Cup 1
18-19 June, 2022, Krakow, Poland, ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup 2
25-26 June 2022, Ljubljana Slovenia, ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup 3
30-31 July, 2022 Augsburg, Germany, ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships
6-7 August, 2022, Halifax, Canada, ICF Canoe Sprint & Paracanoe World Championships
27-28 August, 2022, Pau, France ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup 4
3-4 September, 2022, La Seu, Spain, ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup 5

Supplementary information: 
Key Chinese athlete performances in the Olympics and Asian Games:
Medal results for China at Tokyo 2020
Sprint
Women’s C2 500m M.Y Sun and S.X.Xu                 Gold
Men’s C1 1000m Liu Hao                                        Silver
Men’s C2 1000m Liu Hao/Zhang Peng Fei             Silver

China won no medals at Rio 2016
In the 2018  Asian Games, China won the most medals of all nations in canoeing, a total of 10 gold and three silver.
In the 2018 Asian Games  – LI Qiang (李强) C-2 200 m Sprint  / ZHOU Yu (周玉) K-4 500 m Sprint & K-2 500 m Sprint  / Liu Hao and Hao Wang won gold in the C2 men’s 1000m sprint