Corporate News

SPORTTOTAL AG to assume the role of media company for moving image production on behalf of MagentaTV

- SPORTTOTAL prevails in the tendering procedure against renowned competitors

- New production subsidiary FORTY10 concludes multi-year contract with Deutsche Telekom

- Innovative production concept involving remote and AI technology

- SPORTTOTAL anticipates growing annual revenue contribution in the double-digit million range as from 2022

Cologne, 17 February 2022. Deutsche Telekom and SPORTTOTAL AG expand their collaboration: FORTY10 GmbH, a newly established wholly-owned subsidiary of SPORTTOTAL AG, prevailed against renowned competitors with its innovative production concept in a complex tendering procedure, allowing it to secure a multi-year contract for moving image production on behalf of MagentaTV. As a media company, the Cologne-based technology and streaming experts will gradually switch Magenta TV live production to remote production, also with the aid of AI-based camera work, and automate production processes. As early as the winter of 2022, Forty10 will produce the FIFA Football World Championship from Qatar as MagentaTV's key producer. SPORTTOTAL AG anticipates growing annual revenue contribution in the double-digit million range from the new production subsidiary as from 2022. Going forward, Forty10 is to develop content-related services and business models.

"We plan to position MagentaTV in the field of in-house production as powerfully as possible in technological terms for the future", says Michael Schuld, head of TV of Deutsche Telekom. "In SPORTTOTAL we have found the ideal partner that has convinced us with its innovative solutions. Thanks to the company's expertise in the domain of artificial intelligence as well as in automation, our productions are to become significantly more efficient in the future as we plan to increasingly opt for non-legacy production methods."

Automation of broadcast processes

SPORTTOTAL was compelling in the tendering process, due above all to its outstanding competence in the field of AI-based automation of broadcasting processes - the result of extensive investment in proprietary technology development in recent years. SPORTTOTAL ranks as one of Europe's market leaders in this field. Furthermore, SPORTTOTAL draws on long-standing expertise and its own platform technology for streaming offerings. The contractual partner of Deutsche Telekom is the newly founded SPORTTOTAL subsidiary FORTY10 managed by Peter Lauterbach and Oliver Grodowski. As part of the cooperation, FORTY10 is to gradually switch moving image production for MagentaTV, also with the aid of AI-based camera work, to remote production and to automate production processes.

"FORTY10 will become Europe's foremost cutting-edge production house," as Peter Lauterbach, CEO of SPORTTOTAL AG, stated. "We are deploying the best network and innovative technologies for broadcasting. This will enable us to leverage significant synergies in TV and moving image production for Telecom beyond MagentaTV, especially also for other customers," as Lauterbach emphasises. FORTY10 will continue to work on strategies for building a state-of-the-art TV studio in the headquarters of Telekom Deutschland GmbH based in Bonn.

Expanding the cooperation

Deutsche Telekom and SPORTTOTAL are expanding their successful cooperation through this collaboration. An intensive distribution cooperation between SPORTTOTAL subsidiary sporttotal.tv gmbh, one of Germany's largest multi-sport streaming platforms, and Telekom Deutschland GmbH has been concluded with a fixed term until 2026. In addition, the two companies have been working very successfully on free-to-air linear TV entertainment offering "#dabeiTV" on MagentaTV since 2020. In the very first year, the broadcast station thrilled more than 100 million viewers with a mix of TV series, coverage, documentaries, sports and talks, as well as top events changing on a monthly basis.

About SPORTTOTAL AG

SPORTTOTAL AG (ISIN: DE000A1EMG56), headquartered in Cologne, is a technology and media company on a growth path in the rapidly scalable digital business with video platforms and communities, in the high-margin national and international project business, as well as in the live events business. The company, which was founded in 1979, operates a high-traffic portal through sporttotal, with strong growth for online sport videos and live streaming. The company equips sports clubs with special camera technology which enables sports events to be transmitted live in a high quality and fully automatically on sporttotal.tv. SPORTTOTAL AG's service portfolio also comprises the technical equipping of racing circuits and sports facilities, as well as the production and marketing of sports events such as the ADAC TOTAL 24-Hour Race at the Nürburgring. In addition, SPORTTOTAL AG also produces content for prestigious companies such Porsche, Audi, Mercedes/AMG, Red Bull and VW, operates the linear #dabeiTV station, and organises high-calibre live events such as the Porsche Experience.

www.sporttotal.com

Contact

SPORTTOTAL AG
Am Coloneum 2
50829 Cologne
Germany Tel.: +49 (0) 221-7 88 77- 0

[email protected]