Within the framework of the 25th Anniversary St. Petersburg Economic Forum, Match TV channel, together with the Roscongress Foundation, organized a panel session titled “Sport Without Barriers: New Scenarios and Formats”.
The host of the session was Irina Viner-Usmanova, Chairman of the Commission of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation on Physical Culture and Promotion of a Healthy Lifestyle, President of the Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation, and Tina Kandelaki, Deputy General Director of JSC Gazprom-Media Holding, acted as moderator.
The session dedicated to the further development of Russian sports in the new conditions brought together eminent guests – Dmitry Chernyshenko, Igor Levitin, Oleg Matytsin, Dmitry Svishchev, Oleg Kozhemyako, Evgeny Kuyvashev, Ksenia Shoigu. The following foreign experts also took part in the session: Marcos Diaz, Chairman of the 8th session of the Conference of the Parties to the International Convention against Doping in Sport, Joel Buzu, President of the World Olympians Association (WOA), Zhang Jian, Rector of Beijing Sports University.
General producer of Match TV Aleksandr Tashchin also spoke at the session. He noted importance of developing domestic tournaments not only in terms of sports, but also in terms of shows for spectators:
– We live in amazing times. On the one hand, a time of problems and turbulence. But it is also a time of opportunity for all of us. First of all, this situation is new for our viewer. He was always interested in international competitions, where our athletes compete not with ours. Spectators have always enjoyed watching the Olympic Games and World Championships. Now, because of sanctions, we are deprived of it. Sport cuts us off not as a broadcaster, they cut off multi-million Russian audience. It’s good that not all federations act like this, in particular, UEFA continues to interact with us, and we are fulfilling all our obligations. Our sport must meet world standards, including in terms of TV. Our viewers need to be given a high quality product. We can, and we know how to do it. Practice shows that if Russian competitions are packaged correctly, audience will be interested. An example is the Russian Football Cup, coverage figures exceeded the Champions League final, which took place on our channel the day before. It cannot but rejoice.
The participants of the session supported the position that Russia always follows the principle of “sport outside of politics”, which is at the origins of the modern Olympic movement, and strives for the closest interaction with everyone who is set on developing and strengthening the creative principle of sports.
The 25th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is taking place on June 15–18. Gazprom-Media Holding is the general media partner.