Yogyakarta in the spotlight for the 71st ABU Sports Group Conference
Sports broadcasters from across Asia converged this week in Yogyakarta, Indonesia for the 71st ABU Sports Group Conference and Associated Meetings.
More than forty delegates including those from the host TVRI Indonesia attended the conference. Members from Afghanistan to Singapore, India, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and several partners among others, were present.
Welcoming the delegates, the Chairperson of ABU Sports Group, Ms Lorraine Yuen of TVB Hong Kong highlighted the crucial role of ABU Sports.
The Director TVRI News and Programmes, Mr Pipiet Irianto, while welcoming the delegates, called on ABU sports to play more active role in terms of support for acquiring media rights.
Speaking at the Opening, ABU Secretary General Mr Ahmed Nadeem emphasized the importance of the conference to understand the need of members. He spoke of challenges in acquiring media rights in an increasingly competitive industry.
The ABU Sports Director Mr Cai Yanjiang said, beside acquisition and production ABU sports is now diversifying its portfolio and scope of services. This is done to serve, and support the growth of sports channels in member countries.
The conference featured presentations by several members at the member’s forum. TVRI Sports, RTM Malaysia, SLRC Sri Lanka shared the profile of their sports channels. The Prasar Bharti, India delegates talked about the Sports Broadcasting Sharing Signal Act of India. This generated lot of discussion amidst ever increasing license fee of sports events.
The Yogyakarta conference also saw several presentations by federations and partners ranging from Asian Games to e-Sports, International Biathlon, Asian Para Games and AESF.
On the final day the delegates were treated with an excursion to the ancient city of Borobudur, one of the greatest Buddhist monasteries in the world. The next sports group conference will take place in Seoul, Korea in October, 2023.