Press release World Baseball Softball Confederation
BARCELONA, Spain. The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) today awarded MEDIAPRO the exclusive broadcast rights across the Americas for all WBSC’s world championships through 2022, as well as the flagship global competition on the calendar, the 2019 WBSC Premier12 — an Olympic qualifier this November which will feature the Men’s National Teams from the 12 best-ranked baseball nations in the world.
The agreement also includes all Baseball World Cups (U-12, U-15, U-18, U-23 and Women’s) and all Softball World Cups (U-12, U-15, U-18 and U-23, Men’s and Women’s).
In addition, MEDIAPRO has been awarded the host broadcast rights of all WBSC’s competitions held across the Americas territory, including the 2019 WBSC Premier12 Group A round in Guadalajara, Mexico, and WBSC’s Qualification Events for the Games of the XXXII Olympiad Tokyo 2020.
The landmark agreement was entirely negotiated and closed by BASE, WBSC’s in-house sports marketing agency that was launched in 2018 to manage the distribution of the world governing body’s commercial, media and sponsorship rights.
WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari said: “We are thrilled with this major agreement that awards the broadcast and production rights of our World Cups and Premier12 across the Americas through 2022 to an industry leader like MEDIAPRO. This is a major step towards building National Team baseball and softball — and the WBSC brand — into elite territory.”
Jaume Roures, Managing Partner of MEDIAPRO, said: “We are excited to add this new project to our portfolio. It is a target for the whole MEDIAPRO Group to advance baseball and softball’s international profile as well as the WBSC brand and competitions. It is very significant that world governing bodies such as WBSC entrust MEDIAPRO with a project like this.”
WBSC and MEDIAPRO will also collaborate on the development of new international competitions and formats that are best positioned for regional and global exposure.
The MEDIAPRO Group is involved in the production of 16 national football competitions around the world and has extensive experience in producing major sporting events, such as the UEFA Champions League, the FIFA World Cup and Formula 1.