MUMBAI: IMG Worldwide and Dogus, Group, one of Turkey?s largest private sector conglomerates, are forming an equal joint venture company in Turkey.

The purpose of the JV between Dogus, and IMG will be to create and develop a broad range of sports, fashion and entertainment projects to be implemented in Turkey and the Turkic Republics including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

In India, Reliance Industries Ltd. has a 50:50 JV with IMG, a global sports, fashion and entertainment company. The JV has 30-year rights for basketball and 15-year rights for football.

The joint venture in Turkey is part of the continuing transformation of IMG as a global presence in high-growth geographic areas with high profile, successful partners in each of the countries where they have established relationships. The company now has joint ventures in Brazil with EBX Group and in China with CCTV.

Initial plans for the JV in Turkey include the creation of sports academies, camps and clinics; the building, construction, ownership and operation of stadiums, sports and entertainment venues; staging, representing, managing, owning and selling fashion related events; representation for sale of sports media and sponsorship rights; and staging, representation, management, ownership and sale of sports and events including football, tennis, sailing regattas, golf, motor racing, action sports, beach games, mass participation events, cycling, triathlons among others.

The JV has been agreed to and signed by Dogus chairman Ferit Sahenk, one of the country?s most successful businessmen, and IMG chairman and CEO Mike Dolan.

Says Dolan, "Turkey is now playing a significantly greater role in the world of sports and entertainment. We believe that we have a number of outstanding opportunities ahead of us here in Turkey. We have a vision ? to bring together IMG?s global reach and proven expertise in high profile sporting events, stadia management, fashion events and media rights, with the impressive reach of one of Turkey?s most successful conglomerates, Dogus, Group."

Adds Dogus Holding chairman S,ahenk, "As part of this joint venture agreement we signed with IMG, we aim to establish a fully equipped sports school with a professional team, in order to raise world class athletes. Thanks to our venture with IMG, we are setting our sights on forming a brand-new structure, where young athletes coming from all over Turkey will be trained and raised as world-class athletes. The athletes will be able to compete and successfully represent Turkey in the global arena. The athletic training will be accompanied with foreign language and academic education."

MUMBAI: AMC/Sundance Channel Global is bolstering its programming slate at the on-going television trade event MipTV by acquiring the rights to a range of new productions, series and independent films, including ?Weeds?, ?Damages?, ?The Straits?, ?The Slap? and independent films from festivals including Sundance Film Festival, Cannes, Venice and more.

These announcements follow recent agreements with premier Pay TV platforms across multiple key markets in Europe and Asia for new launches of its international television networks and video-on-demand (VOD) services.

AMC/Sundance Channel Global president Bruce Tuchman said, "AMC/Sundance Channel Global has experienced expanded growth over a very short time and while our advanced rights offering and robust VOD services are embraced by operators, it is our outstanding programming that caters to a hungry audience and continues to drive the growth of our business. These acquisitions reinforce our commitment to offering high quality, independent-minded programming to international audiences across multiple platforms."

Weeds? has been acquired for Sundance Channel in France and French Benelux through a deal with Lionsgate. The agreement includes rights to the series through season four. ?Damages? has been acquired for Sundance Channel in Spain and Portugal through an agreement with Sony Pictures Television. The agreement includes rights to the series through season five. ?The Straits? is a darkly humorous crime drama series set in Australia. Premiere window rights have been acquired for Sundance Channel in Eastern Europe, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, France, Benelux and select territories in Asia through an agreement with DCD Rights.

The Slap?, meanwhile, is a new drama mini-series based on the bestselling book by Christos Tsiolkas. Sundance Channel has acquired premiere window rights for the series to air in Dutch Benelux through an agreement with DCD Rights.

This agreement builds on the channel?s previously acquired rights for the programme in Eastern Europe, Spain,Portugal, Greece, Turkey and Asia. 2 Films have been acquired including ?Bellflower? and ?Myth of the American Sleepover?. The deal includes over 25 premiere window titles on Sundance Channel in Eastern Europe and Belgium. Currently, viewers in Europe and Asia can find shows such as ?Mad Men?, ?The Walking Dead?, ?Breaking Bad? and ?Hell on Wheels? on Sundance Channel. Last week, Sundance Channel?s sister channel AMC in the US debuted season five of "Mad Men" with a two-hour premiere, which resulted in record ratings making it the most watched episode ever from the series.

MUMBAI: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced that Istanbul (Turkey), Tokyo (Japan), Baku (Azerbaijan), Doha (Qatar) and Madrid (Spain) have submitted their application files to host the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in 2020.

The application file provides the IOC with an overview of each city?s project and is the key element in Phase one of the bidding procedure.

These files will now be studied by an IOC-appointed working group and a report made to the IOC Executive Board (EB). At its meeting in May in Quebec City, the EB will decide which cities will be accepted as Candidate Cities and proceed to phase 2 of the IOC?s bid process.

Following its decision, the Working Group?s report will be published on the IOC web site.

If they so wish, applicant cities may make their responses public and post them on their web sites as of today.

The election of the host city will take place on 7 September 2013 at the IOC session in Buenos Aires, Argentina.