MUMBAI: Football's governing body Fifa's marketing agency Infront Sports and Media has signed an exclusive new media broadcast agreement with SMG Broadband a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shanghai Media Group (SMG). The deal is for the World Cup which takes place in Germany later this year.
The rights granted are in the mobile telephony and internet arenas and include up to four minutes of video material per match for 'near-live' and/or delayed highlight coverage via mobile networks as well via the Internet.
SMG BB will exploit these rights on its own Internet platform and intends to collaborate with third parties in the territory for the distribution of mobile video content.
The agreement covers all 64 matches of the World Cup. It is exclusive for China, the world’s largest mobile telephony market, with more than 350 million subscribers, and the second largest World Wide Web market, with 111 million users. Additionally SMG has acquired full access to the archive material from the 2002 Fifa World Cup, which took place in Korea and Japan.
Infront CEO Oscar Frei said, “We are delighted to be working with the Shanghai Media Group in this exciting breakthrough. We already have an established relationship through Infront’s joint venture with the Chinese Basketball Association and Shanghai Media Group is also the official broadcaster of the Chinese Super League in football. They are as dedicated to sport as we are and our partnership will mean that – together – we can conquer another new frontier in coverage of the Fifa World Cup.”
SMG is a multimedia television and radio broadcasting, news and Internet company.