Big Brother maker Endemol is making a new Endemol Sport unit with the aim of producing sports magazine shows and live sports coverage as a “worldwide, multimedia sports business”. A big part of the operation will be producing and managing other brands’ sports channels across TV and digital media platforms on a JV basis, as ITN does for Setanta Sports News, itself a JV with Virgin Media.

It already operates the Eredivisie Live channel at home in Holland on that basis - it’s a partnership with the Dutch premier league, includes appearances from Gary Lineker and is carried on all Dutch IPTV carriers as well as conventional platforms. In the online regard on this front, it will also go up against Perform, which already packages football video for several online publishers and club sites themselves.

HQ’d in London, Endemol Sport is taking two execs from sports marketer IMG World, Lawrence Duffy and Gregg Oldfield to be joint MDs.

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