FIFA Confederations Cup 2005 heads for TV record
The FIFA Confederations Cup – a tournament involving regional champions from around the world - is much more than a "dress rehearsal" for next year's FIFA World Cup™. It is a major international football event in its own right – promising a clash of top teams, with television coverage of the highest quality. The eight teams taking part in the event are – in addition to the host nation Germany - Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Greece, Japan, Mexico and Tunisia.
There will be more broadcasters than ever before and wider coverage in more countries. The distribution results now confirm the FIFA Confederations Cup as the second biggest FIFA tournament, behind only the FIFA World Cup™. More than 170 countries will take coverage of the event – a record for the FIFA Confederations Cup. By comparison, the 2001 edition was watched in 90 countries and the 2003 event in 145 countries.
Worldwide, there will be more than 150 broadcast partners.Such is the interest in the event and the effectiveness of the open-market distribution strategy, that in some countries there are multiple broadcasters, such as in Brazil where the event is being broadcast by TV Globo and TV Cultura; as well as Bandsports and at least five radio stations.
Coverage in Europe is particularly strong, as a number of factors come together: FIFA's decision to hold the event every four years (instead of every two), always a year ahead of the FIFA World Cup™, has had a positive effect. Combined with strong event promotion and the high calibre of the teams, this has ensured that the event is seen as an outstanding international sports product for broadcasters.
In Germany, there are several broadcast partners, ensuring the most comprehensive coverage ever. ARD/ZDF is showing most matches live on Free TV; Premiere is broadcasting all 16 matches live on pay TV, while RTL and DSF have delayed clip rights. There are also radio and news access deals in place. Dr. Günter Struve, Programme Director of German broadcaster ARD said, "The FIFA Confederations Cup is now a very important event for ARD and Infront has been successful in building interest in this tournament to the point that it is now a major international television event."
Oliver Seibert, an Executive Director of Infront, added, "The distribution success is excellent, but the story gets even better. The number of countries and broadcasters alone does not reflect the huge increase in penetration we expect. Most European broadcasters will be showing all 16 matches, most of them live. Last time, a number of them showed key matches only. This means that there will be a considerable increase in hours of coverage and exposure to report, once the research is done."
In addition to traditional broadcast coverage, Infront has also reached an agreement, amongst others, for mobile telephony and internet rights in Japan, allowing for the transmission of video clips of key footage (such as goals) over the internet and via mobile networks to mobile phones, geoblocked for user access only within the territory.
Infront's wholly-owned subsidiary, Host Broadcast Services (HBS), the dedicated host broadcast company for the 2006 FIFA World Cup™, is also the host broadcaster for the FIFA Confederations Cup 2005. This is a valuable opportunity for HBS to test a substantial range of its production and operational plans ahead of 2006, which means that the FIFA Confederations Cup is being approached as if it were a FIFA World Cup™.
"Dream team" production crews, selected on the basis of merit and experience, from France, Germany and the UK, will ensure the highest creative standards in the filming of the matches. Fifteen HD cameras will cover each match, to produce the basic international feed.
A full list of broadcasters for the FIFA Confederations Cup 2005 is available on request by emailing Infront at info@infrontsports.com.
For further information, please contact:
John Kristick
Infront Sports & Media AG
Tel. +41-41-723 15 15
Fax. +41-41-723-1516
info@infrontsports.com
