LONDON—Gravity Media has inked a new three-year deal producing Matchnight Services for UEFA across their major club competitions - the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and the inaugural UEFA Europa Conference League.
“We are delighted to continue our relationship with UEFA for a further three years,” said director of production and content for EMEA Frank Callaghan. “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”
The deal includes highlights programming, digital content, commentaries, and a live instant highlights show for all UEFA’s rights holding broadcasters. It marks the continuation of a partnership that began with the first season of UEFA Champions League football in 1992/93.
This new agreement brings with it a major increase in production services, on Thursday nights in particular where Gravity Media’s production center 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 on match nights, as well as additional commentary booths and galleries.
Nick Symes, director of technology for Gravity Media, oversaw the project. “With the expansion of the Europa Conference League and the increased required 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 match night operation,” Symes said. “The new facility occupies a newly refitted room and is equipped with flexible monitoring positions, dedicated talkback all integrated into high specification technical furniture.”
