Grass Valley has finalized a $5 million, multi-year enterprise pricing agreement with Gravity Media to provide best-in-class production solutions and advanced workflows across its international operations. This deal brings technological, operational and commercial benefits to the broadcast services company; Gravity Media’s purchase commitment to leverage more lines within the vendor’s broad portfolio and increase volume over time, means Grass Valley provides better pricing, creative financing and closer technological collaboration. The initial investment under the new agreement includes Sirius 840 Series routers, which will deploy across 12 venues for a major European soccer tournament postponed to this summer.

“It’s fair to say that 2020 was a challenging year for live sports,” explained Eamonn Dowdall, executive director at Gravity Media. “We have been able to weather the storm thanks to our long-term contracts with many of the biggest names in live sports and entertainment. And, as we ramp-up our activities around the resumption of the major sports calendar and upcoming events, we looked for a technology partner that could combine an industry-leading solutions portfolio and roadmap with commercial scale and creativity”.

This partnership expands on the Grass Valley IP infrastructure Gravity Media already has in place which is currently being used at a major tennis tournament.

“By entering a multi-year, enterprise agreement with Grass Valley, Gravity Media will have access to best-in-breed production solutions and the Grass Valley team of industry experts to help us to continue to support the biggest, global sporting events this year and beyond,” continues Dowdall. “Both companies see a tremendous opportunity for strengthening our technology partnership and for developing and delivering world-class solutions that align with the fast-changing demands of the media landscape.”

Tim Banks, vice president, sales for EMEA added: “We are delighted that Gravity Media is set to realize the benefits of entering a multi-year enterprise agreement with Grass Valley. We have developed a close and successful partnership with the Gravity Media team over the years and we look forward to collaborating on delivering the latest generation solutions, including IP-enabled remote production, for mass audience live sports events in the future."

The addition of the Sirius 840 routers, coupled with Gravity Media’s existing Grass Valley IP core, enables the broadcast services company to leverage a powerful, future-ready production environment agnostic to evolving production needs and can adapt rapidly — live, on-the-fly.