TRACE appoints Laurent Dumeau as Sports CEO

Music and sports broadcaster TRACE has appointed Laurent Dumeau as CEO of TRACE Sports. Dumeau will oversee all activities of the recently launched channel that is dedicated to sports celebrities. He will also be in charge of global affiliate sales for Trace music channels TRACE Urban HD, TRACE Tropical HD and TRACE Africa.

The former senior VP of global affiliate sales at NBCUniversal’s (NBCU) overseas channels arm has resurfaced at French broadcaster TRACE TV, taking up the newly created post of CEO at its sports division. Laurent Dumeau left Universal Networks International (UNI) last autumn in the wake of the restructure that followed Comcast’s takeover of NBCU

Olivier Laouchez, TRACE’s co-founder and chairman, remains overall CEO. He said of Dumeau’s appointment: “Laurent has a unique track record for successfully launching worldwide channel operations. Given TRACE’s international growth, he is the perfect person to have in the driving seat of TRACE Sports and of TRACE’s distribution activities.”

The company last year tied up with Lightning International, the new Asian broadcast consultancy established by former ITV Studios Global Entertainment Asia chief James Ross, to speed its international expansion efforts.

The year before, TRACE partnered with the UK’s IMG Sports Media Production to build up its sports and lifestyle programming.