Paris – GlobeCast has inked an exclusive deal to provide sports marketing agency IEC in Sports with contribution and distribution services till December 2009, bringing the partnership to 10 years. Under the agreement, over 3,000 hours of live programming from more than 250 sporting events are expected to be distributed worldwide annually via GlobeCast’s content delivery network. Facilities including downlink, uplink, capacity, encoding and encryption as well as station facilities are also included. GlobeCast is also responsible for the European and Asian distribution of IEC’s four weekly television productions including World of Athletics, World of Tennis, FINA Aquatics World and Road to Beijing. The 26-minute magazine shows are distributed via satellite from GlobeCast’s London Technical Operations Centre where the signals are encrypted and uplinked to satellites covering Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. As the official TV agent for sports governing bodies including the world swimming association (FINA), International Volleyball Federation (FIVB), International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) and Badminton World Federation (BWF), IEC supplies feeds to broadcasters including NBC, TV Globo, CCTV, Fuji TV, PCCW, Al-Jazeera and Eurosport.