Football Media

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From 7 to 29 June, Austria, together with Switzerland, is presenting the European Football (Soccer) Championship. Important information is available to all fans under http://www.sozialversicherung.at/ecguide/ so that the consequences of possible injury or sickness remain as minor as possible. Standing behind this information is the Austrian social insurance system that is responsible for Austria’s health care system, recognized as among the best in the world.

Via the internet address http://www.sozialversicherung.at/ecguide/ fans can already inform themselves of important steps to take in case anything should happen:

    - Will I be treated during my stay in Austria?
    - What is my legal insurance status?
    - Which documents should I take with me as a precaution?
    - Whom can I contact in Austria immediately in an emergency?
    - First aid dictionary for the most important expressions

In addition, there is general information about EURO 2008 and the host regions in Austria (Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Klagenfurt).

The guidebook is exceptionally easy to use and adapts personally to the user: Upon answering a few questions, it presents the visitor with information precisely tailored to his or her needs - and that in 34 European languages, from Icelandic to Greek, Russian to Montenegrin.

Austria’s Sozialversicherung, the Austrian social security system, is the foundation of social security in Austria. It is a legally established organization without commercial interests. With the introduction of the e-card for all Austrian insured persons, the Austrian social security system has earned a leading international role in the country-wide adoption and further development of e-health.

http://www.hauptverband.at

    For further questions, please contact:
    Main Association of Austrian Social Security Institutions
    (Hauptverband der österreichischen Sozialversicherungsträger)
    1030 Wien, Kundmanngasse 21-23
    Press Office
    Email: presse@hvb.sozvers.at

Source: Main Association of Austrian Social Security Institutions

4 Locations
Euro2008.com will operate from four offices in the four different countries during the Euro 2008 tournament.
1) International Broadcast centre in Vienna
2) Basel – base for the core editorial team
3) London – live commentary and logging services
4) Munich – organisation of mobile products throughout the tournament.
Satellite bureaus delivering the multilingual services will also operate from Cologne, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Lisbon, Riga and Hong Kong during the event.
10 Languages
English, Portuguese, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean.
37 Correspondents
as part of the Host Broadcasting Operations, 21 correspondents and 16 ENG crews will be located in close proximity to the 16 competing teams, providing live reports and video interviews direct from the stadiums and training camps.
130 Journalists/Technical staff
There will be 130 journalists/correspondents, editors, producers, camera crews and interpreters on site, all help with content delivery, and the integration of the interactive community and personalised features.
30,000 Pages
30,000 individual pages will make up the site (excluding statistics and data pages as these are too numerous to count)

Delivering complete event coverage to European football fans across the globe
Produced by UEFA New Media Technologies (UMET), the official event website of UEFA EURO 2008â„¢, euro2008.com has been launched as part of a converged media offering for football fans. It can be found at www.euro2008.com.

euro2008.com delivers comprehensive coverage of the tournament to European football fans across the globe. The site is available in 10 languages – English, Portuguese, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean – an increase of two languages from UEFA EURO 2004™.

The site is the result of a converged approach towards production, as UMET software solutions feed the host broadcast operations and also the web. The host broadcast operations will be a source of content for the web offering, and in turn, the web will be a source of content for the television production operations.

euro2008.com will become the natural focus for fans seeking official tournament news, squad announcements, injury updates and venue and travel information such as detailed information on all eight host cities, 3-D stadium maps, vodcast guides, journey planners and detailed mapping solutions.

The April release – marking 50 days until the start of the final tournament on 7 June - sees heavy emphasis on the history of the competition. Fans can use the graphic timeline to access extensive information on the 12 previous tournaments, including match reports on all 173 final tournament matches since 1960 and profiles and unique images of past winners and tournament stars.

The website will interlink video, audio text and photo content, and will be a forum for user participation by giving users the chance to leave comments and opinions on blogs and photo blogs as part of the ‘Fanzone’ section. Users can also share and rate photos uploaded to the site.

Users from around the world will be able to access euro2008.com/mobile on their mobile devices.

Visitors to the site will be able to personalise their experience online by drawing in official
euro2008.com news feeds to their personal page. There is also the capacity to push content onto existing social network pages, and download widgets to enable content taken from euro2008.com to be spread and shared across the internet.

euro2008.com also features a range of games provided by the official tournament sponsors: visitors can play fantasy football, tackle the video quiz challenge or vote for the goal of the day.

“The site offers multiple ways to experience UEFA EURO 2008â„¢ around the key concepts of participation by the fans and personalisation of the site for users,” said David Farrelly, Head of Web and Content at UEFA Media Technologies. “We will be inviting not only more interaction and participation, but also a range of possibilities for fans to customise the site according to their team, their location or their main interests.”

CCTV and SINA.com gain broadcast rights in China, TBS and WOWOW TV in Japan

UEFA has today announced further details on the finalisation of four major contracts for media rights in Asia, in China and Japan, for the forthcoming UEFA EURO 2008â„¢ final tournament to be held in Austria and Switzerland. The deals come off the back of a recent visit to China and Japan by the UEFA President, Michel Platini, reflecting the growing importance of the region for UEFA and the increasing interest of football fans there in its competitions.

CCTV, the largest national free-to-air broadcaster in the Chinese market, reaching over 350 million homes in the country, has been awarded the television rights for all 31 matches of the UEFA EURO 2008â„¢ while SINA.com have been granted the new media rights.

CCTV will undertake a wide coverage of the competition, by broadcasting all the matches live on CCTV5 (27 matches) and CCTV Soccer Channel (4 matches) as well as highlights programme at peak local time. SINA.com will broadcast live all 31 matches of UEFA EURO 2008™ free of charge through its online and mobile services, enhancing the Chinese football fans’ experience by allowing them new alternative opportunities for viewing the games.

In Japan the free-to-air channel TBS will show a selection of matches of UEFA EURO 2008â„¢ live and will provide the Japanese viewer with extensive coverage of these games. In addition this will be complemented with full match coverage and programming offered by the pay TV platform WOWOW TV. Both TBS and WOWOW are historic broadcasters of the UEFA European Football Championshipâ„¢ and will allow a full and extensive coverage of the UEFA EURO 2008â„¢ final tournament in Japan.

Commenting on the deals UEFA President, Michel Platini, said:

“China is one of the most important football publics in the world and thanks to CCTV and SINA, Chinese football lovers will now have full opportunity to enjoy the entire UEFA European Football Championship™ live on television, the internet and through their mobile ‘phones. In Japan we know that there is an enormous interest and passion for European football and with the agreements with TBS and WOWOW TV Japanese fans are fully catered for.

“We hope that the great interest the Asians have developed for European football will elicit more people taking up the sport and that soon we will see the emergence of some great Asian football talents.”