MEDIAPRO Canada selected as TV production and international media rights partner of CEBL Summer Series in 2020

The company will supply all the technical facilities, production crew and transmission services to bring exciting live CEBL basketball coverage from the 2020 Summer Series, which will be held at the Meridian Centre in St Catharines, Ontario, and is distributing live and highlights rights to the Series to broadcasters around the world. MEDIAPRO Canada will use AutomaticTV, the group’s proprietary Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven fully automated sports production system, to produce High Definition live multi-camera coverage of the 19 games for CBC GEM – marking the first time the technology has been used in Canada. AutomaticTV offers a unique multi-camera broadcast quality production solution with a 60 frames-per-second 1080p rate, allowing rights-holders to maximize their investment and generate new revenue streams.

“We are extremely excited to partner with MEDIAPRO, a world leader in broadcast production, and we look forward to them showcasing our talented players across the country and internationally,” said Mike Morreale, Commissioner and CEO of the CEBL. “We are thrilled to be the first in Canada to benefit from the MEDIAPRO AI platform AutomaticTV, and to be a leader in utilizing new technology to deliver our amazing product to our fans.”

Oscar López, CEO of MEDIAPRO Canada, said: “We are delighted to partner with the CEBL as they embark on their second season of play. MEDIAPRO’s basketball pedigree is extensive – we produce live coverage of the FIBA World Cup, the Euroleague, Spain’s ACB Liga and the SINA 3x3 Elite League among others – and we are excited to introduce our innovative AutomaticTV system to the Canadian market.”

The CEBL, the trailblazing new men’s professional basketball league, launched in 2019 with six teams; the Fraser Valley Bandits, Edmonton Stingers, 2019 league champions Saskatchewan Rattlers, Niagara River Lions, Hamilton Honey Badgers and Guelph Nighthawks, and expanded to include the Ottawa BlackJacks for the 2020 season.

The CEBL combines world-class professional basketball with a fan-friendly environment, under the banner of “Come for the party, stay for the game!” More than 100 Canadian and international players, most with national team, USports, NCAA, NBA G League, European pro league and NBA experience, will take to the court for the 2020 Summer Series, providing fans with two weeks of top-level sport and entertainment.

About AutomaticTV
AutomaticTV is the MEDIAPRO Group’s proprietary automated sports production system, offering low-cost fully automatic multi-camera broadcast solutions. MEDIAPRO has been at the forefront of developing the Automatic TV Artificial Intelligence-based application for sports productions for over a decade. AutomaticTV’s 1080p 60fps multicam system uses computer vision techniques and AI algorithms to understand what is happening on the field of play, which camera must be selected, how this camera follows the action and which is the optimal pan/tilt/zoom to be applied at each moment, adapting production styles to each sport. The CEBL is the latest league to use MEDIAPRO’s AutomaticTV systems to produce high-quality broadcast coverage. AutomaticTV is currently used by Spain’s LaLiga and LaLiga SmartBank, France’s Ligue1 Conforama, the Belgian Jupiler Pro League and Proximus League, Denmark’s SuperLiga, the SkyBet EFL Championship and League One, and the FA Women’s Super League. AutomaticTV was selected by ESPN in October 2019 to cover NCAA Division 1 conference America East sports events for its digital platforms.

About MEDIAPRO Group
MEDIAPRO Group, which recorded annual revenues exceeding €1.8 billion in 2019, operates a fleet of over 80 High Definition and 4K Outside Broadcast units, and produces live coverage of more than 12,000 events around the world each year. The Group is currently involved in the production of 16 national soccer competitions around the world, including top-tier leagues in Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Kenya, Angola, Slovenia, Serbia, Colombia, Bolivia, Mexico and Canada. Mediapro Group crews produce events for the UEFA Champions League, FIFA World Cup, FIFA Confederations Cup, the Africa Cup of Nations, FIBA events, the Euroleague and Formula 1. Mediapro was also the host broadcaster of the 2019 Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru.
Early in 2019, MEDIAPRO sealed a long-term partnership with Canadian Soccer Business for the worldwide media rights to the Canadian Premier League, the country’s new first division soccer league; the Canadian Championship, Canada Soccer’s highest domestic professional soccer competition, involving all professional soccer clubs in Canada; and the home games of Canada Soccer’s Men’s and Women’s National Teams.
MEDIAPRO also manages the global media rights to Spain’s LaLiga Santander and in 2018 was awarded a wide package of rights for the four seasons from 2020-21 to France’s Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, where it will launch a 24/7 service, Téléfoot, in partnership with commercial broadcaster TF1,, to carry live coverage of league matches. The MEDIAPRO Group produces more than 15 TV channels worldwide, including several specialty sports channels.
With 58 offices on four continents, MEDIAPRO is also one of the most important creators of content in the world, with projects for HBO, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Turner, DirecTV, Movistar, FOX, Viacom and Televisa.

MEDIAPRO Canada is also a full-service company offering mobiles, air-packs, REMI capability, crewing, studios, and a complete rentals department from its Toronto, Canada headquarters. Its newly-expanded fleet of seven Outside Broadcast units includes Odyssey, the first mid-size 4K mobile in North America, and Alto, a 53′ fully equipped expando mobile, capable of 14 cameras and 4 EVS systems. The Group entered the Canadian broadcast services market in April of 2019 year as part of its global expansion drive.