Eurovision Sport is delighted to announce that it has become the latest organization to join albert, the authority on environmental sustainability for film and TV.

Headquartered in London and led by BAFTA, albert is leading a charge against climate change, bringing the film and TV industries together to tackle their environmental impact and inspiring screen audiences to act for a sustainable future.

Eurovision Sport has joined the albert Sports Consortium, whose members include: Premier League Productions; Sky Sports; Formula 1; Aurora Media; BT Sport; All England Lawn Tennis Club; BBC Sport; ITV Sport; Sunset & Vine; Channel 4; and IMG.

Franck Choquard, Eurovision Sport’s Head of Content & Servicing, said: “It’s important that EBU Members lead the pack in term of sustainability, one of the major challenges facing society today. As public-service media, we must be seen to be concretely contributing to the development of a carbon-neutral production concept, as well as promoting awareness and best practice through our editorial output, to achieve ambitious results. In this context, membership of the albert initiative will offer crucial support to the work of Eurovision Sport and all EBU Members.

“As the key media partner of a range of sports, including biathlon, the number-one winter sport, and top summer sports such as athletics, cycling, rowing and swimming, it is natural for us to embrace such challenges and use the strengths of our Members to support our federations to achieve their own ambitious goals.”

The albert initiative aims to support everyone working in film and TV to understand how they can create positive environmental change.

Tricia Duffy, strategy advisor to the BAFTA albert sports consortium said: ‘We are delighted to welcome Eurovision Sport to our group. We have a huge challenge on our hands when it comes to reducing our impact on the environment as well as inspiring our audiences and collaboration will be key to our success. We look forward to sharing our learnings so far with Eurovision Sport as well as learning from them too” 

The move coincides with the EBU’s publication this month of ‘Environmental Sustainability at Public Service Media: Members’ Stories’, which asserts that: “As a society we can no longer make excuses or seek reasons not to take action on environmental issues… Public service media (PSM) organisations have a responsibility to improve their environmental performance, and this should be at the heart of their mission. PSM needs to take a lead and pivotal role in tackling climate change.”

The document goes on to describe and explore examples of environmental sustainability initiatives launched by 10 EBU Members: BBC (UK); France Télévisions; ITV (UK); NRK (Norway); RAI (Italy); RTE (Ireland); RTVE (Spain); SWR (Germany); YLE (Finland); and ZDF (Germany).

Eurovision Sport

The Eurovision Sport portfolio was recently augmented by an agreement with the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) for EBU Members across Europe and North Africa to broadcast exclusive coverage of FIG World Championships in Artistic, Rhythmic and Trampoline Gymnastics for the cycle 2021-2024.

This followed a new, long-term exclusive rights agreement with the International Biathlon Union and extensions of existing rights agreements with road cycling’s Tour de France and Vuelta a España.

These agreements complement an existing line-up of partnerships with top sports organisations including: FIFA; UEFA; the International Paralympic Committee; World Athletics; European Athletics; the European Championships Munich 2022; the UCI; FINA; FEI; World Rowing; the International Canoe Federation; United World Wrestling; EWF; the FIS; Ski Austria; SwissSki; the UEC; LEN; ASO; and European Gymnastics.