Canadian Paralympic Committee – ABU DHABI, UAE – Sept. 7, 2017 – The Canadian Paralympic Broadcast Media Consortium has won the 2017 Paralympic Media Award in the broadcast category for its coverage of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

The prize is awarded by the International Paralympic Committee to the TV or radio broadcaster that presented the highest quality and most dynamic coverage of Rio 2016.

The unique Consortium model saw the Canadian Paralympic Committee acquire the domestic broadcast and digital rights to the Paralympic Games and assemble and lead an all-star content team to tell the stories of Canadian athletes and their sport performances. Consortium media partners included CBC/Radio-Canada, Sportsnet, Yahoo! Sports, AMI, SendtoNews, Videogami and Facebook Canada.

The Consortium provided an unprecedented amount of over 1,200 hours of coverage over the course of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games across a variety of platforms including television and digital streaming, to an audience of over 10.2 million, representing a 208% increase over London 2012 and reaching nearly 29% of Canadians.

“The Canadian Paralympic Committee and all involved are thrilled with the success of this new concept, which sets the stage for a broadcasting model of the future,” said Martin Richard, Executive Director, Communications and Brand at the Canadian Paralympic Committee. “Working together as individual partners and as a collective, the bar has been raised at all levels. It has been a privilege to lead and innovate through this pioneering model, changing how Paralympic sport is covered in Canada, thanks to the outstanding, world-class coverage by our media partners, the investment of our corporate sponsors and the support of Canadian fans. Thank you to our athletes for being so open in sharing their stories.”

Production and marketing assets were fully financed by new sponsorship sales led entirely by the Canadian Paralympic Committee. Broadcast partners included: CIBC, Air Canada, Petro-Canada, Canadian Tire, Sport Check and Bell Canada.

“In addition to achieving record performances on our media partners’ platforms, the Consortium model allowed us to significantly grow our fan base and increase awareness of the Paralympic Movement,” added Richard. “As we prepare for upcoming Games in PyeongChang 2018, Tokyo 2020 and beyond and while the media landscape continues to evolve, we will continue to innovate and adapt as we leverage the Consortium model with our partners, to showcase the accomplishments of Paralympians to all Canadians.”

About the Canadian Paralympic Committee: Paralympic.ca

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Alison Korn

Senior Manager, Media Relations and Communications

Canadian Paralympic Committee

Phone: 613-569-4333 ext. 243 / Cell: 613-298-4927

Email: akorn@paralympic.ca

Louis Daignault,

Coordinator, Communications

Canadian Paralympic Committee

Phone: 613-569-4333 ext. 237

Email: ldaignault@paralympic.ca