Participants, including the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), who signed a partnership deal with the IBU which covers four seasons of the winter sport in April, discussed TV production for the event.

The Hochfilzen 2017 Organising Committee hosted the meeting, which was also attended by representatives from Infront Sports and Media, who resigned its marketing rights contract with the IBU World Championships and World Cup events from 2018 to 2022 in April.

Other EBU-member television stations also took part in the gathering of the production world, where technical operations and international signal issues were discussed.

Attendees were given a tour of the venues due to be used for the 2017 IBU World Championships, the first to be held in Austria since Hochfilzen staged part of the 2005 edition.

They were also shown the progress of the infrastructure expansion projects in the Austrian town, such as reconstruction of the main building, the new team service area and pathway to the TV compound.

The deals with Infront and the EBU were signed in a bid to enhance the coverage of the sport worldwide, with the 2017 event a key marker for athletes and biathlon‘s worldwide governing body ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.

As well as the 2005 Championships, Hochfilzen also played host to the IBU’s flagship event, held annually apart from Olympic years, in 1978 and 1988.

It was awarded the hosting rights for the IBU World Championships at the organisation’s Congress in Merano in Italy back in 2012 ahead of fellow candidate Östersund in Sweden.