Businesses

Lagardère Sports

• Send

Over the course of the 2006 financial year, the Lagardère group pursued a strategy of acquiring businesses involved in sports. Two projects in particular – the acquisitions of Sportfive and Newsweb – were completed during the year.

Sportfive

A leader in the management of sports marketing and audiovisual rights, Sportfive acts in partnership with sporting bodies and clubs in the process of deriving value from their rights, including broadcasting rights, which are bought by television channels and a wide range of other content distribution platforms (currently the Internet and mobile phones), and marketing rights, which offer advertisers the opportunity to communicate their message on a wide variety of different media (from players' shirts to hoardings and stadium sponsorship.

• TV and media rights
  
  Sportfive's efficient organizational structure is particularly well suited to developing and marketing sports-related TV and media rights. Its executives are in direct contact with the principal decision-makers in the media market from its head offices in Hamburg and Paris and via offices throughout the world.
  
  Numerous sporting clubs, federations and event venues rely on this network of subsidiaries, with its experienced teams of staff and partners, to guarantee optimal media exposure and significant media revenues.
  
  The TV and media rights under management are largely second- and third-party rights (which do not include broadcasts of matches in the host countries) and qualifying matches for international competitions, as well as rights for certain friendlies.
  
  Football, the world's top sport, is both the starting-point for Sportfive's success and the core of the business around which its activities revolve. However, although Sportfive has become the European leader in marketing TV and media rights for football events, its portfolio of rights has grown considerably over the years and today includes a variety of popular sports such as handball, boxing, rugby and ski jumping.
  
  

• Marketing rights
  
  Today, sponsorship is the highest-value form of communication after TV and press advertising, and it represents an efficient communications tool for brands. The main objectives of sponsorship – in addition to increasing brand recognition and sales – are to strengthen brand image, retain the loyalty of existing customers and improve staff motivation.
  
  After the Olympic Games, football is the sport that generates the most interest around the world. It therefore receives a corresponding level of attention in the media, and the extent of its presence on television makes football the largest marketing platform in the world. Television audiences and football's market share of television exceed those of any other sport.
  

Newsweb

Created in 1999, Newsweb produces and disseminates content on new media and is currently positioning itself as the leading group for male targets in four major areas: sports information, financial information, automobiles and entertainment.

Today, these four themes are covered by the company's five Internet sites:

• Sports.fr: a general sports site launched in 2000, with editorial content based on real-time sports information, results, rankings and live matches.
  

• Sport4fun.com: a free sports betting and gaming site, acquired by Newsweb in December 2004.
  

• Football.fr: a specialized football site launched in January 2006.
  

• Autonews.fr: an automobile information site launched in June 2006.
  

• Boursier.com: a financial information site covering the French and American markets, acquired by Newsweb in January 2006.
  

Newsweb's leading revenue source is the sale of advertising space (advertising, sponsored links, sponsorships and so on), followed by sales of editorial content from its various sites, sales of premium services (subscriptions) and database leasing.