Industry Shorts: Liverpool, Cricket World Cup, Scn, Clipper Race

Liverpool has extended its long-term regional partnership with MG Motor, with the new agreement to incorporate global markets.

MG Motor previously served as the Premier League club’s official automotive partner in China and under the new agreement it will take on the designation of official global car partner.

MG will use the partnership to help accelerate growth and brand awareness beyond China in key international regions, including Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia, South America and North Africa. The brand will continue to receive signed merchandise, LED advertising exposure, access to players and club hospitality.

Fresh calls have been made to add the final stages of the Cricket World Cup and the Ashes to the list of “crown jewel” sporting events reserved for free-to-air television coverage after high viewing figures for Sunday’s World Cup final clash between England and New Zealand. A source told The Telegraph newspaper that a review of the list is unlikely to be made in the near future after, with pay-television broadcaster Sky holding rights to England home matches until 2024.

Sky held live rights to this year’s Cricket World Cup but struck an agreement with Channel 4 for the latter to carry coverage of Sunday’s final. The coverage saw peak viewership across Sky and Channel 4 of 8.3 million, with coverage on Sky channels watched by 3.5 million viewers alone.

Former Sports Minister Tracey Crouch feels the interest shown in Sunday’s dramatic finale to the Cricket World Cup is evidence that such events should be more widely available.

“I really think that given the viewing figures for both the women’s football World Cup and men’s Cricket World Cup final, sport needs to reflect on whether broadcast deals should be about the money or the impact of more people watching,” she said.

The men’s final of the Wimbledon Championships which also took place Sunday, with Novak Djokovic’s five-set win over Roger Federer, attracted a peak TV audience of 9.6 million viewers on BBC One. An average of six million people tuned in to watch the five-hour match, which was the longest ever Wimbledon final.

UK-based free-to-air OTT channel Sports Channel Network (SCN) has claimed a first with a digital advertising initiative using the Google Ad Manager platform.

SCN said it has become the first sports channel to deliver digital advertising to a free-to-air broadcast audience using the Google Ad Manager platform. The initiative follows an agreement between Google and VOD 365, which SCN is a part of.

SCN is available on Freeview and YouView and launched at the end of 2017. It has streamed action from the likes of Formula E, FIBA, FIH Pro League, UCI, FIA, LTA and cycling’s Hammer Series.

VOD 365 Founder and Chief Executive Paul Coster said: “In sport, we have tested a wide range of content on SCN and can now focus on what works for fans and for advertisers. As marketing spend moves towards programmatic solutions, SCN will target ads to specific pieces of content and measure regional differences.

“Data for us is the big priority. It’s helping us manage the frequency of ads and how we deliver them, and it’s also helping us in the decision-making process around acquisitions.”

ATPI Sports Events has agreed a deal to become the official travel supplier for the 2019/20 edition of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.

ATPI Sports Events will deliver a travel experience for race organisers, crew and their supporters. The company will support the race team with arrangements for staff travelling to deliver each stopover, while it will also look to create hospitality experiences for other race partners.

The 2019/20 Clipper Race will comprise eight legs, with stopovers in 16 destinations around the world. The event gets underway in London on 1st September, with other host ports to include Punta del Este, Cape Town, Fremantle, the Whitsundays, Sanya, Zhuhai, Qingdao, Seattle, Panama, New York, Bermuda and Derry-Londonderry.

ATPI Sports Events has previously worked at major sports events such as the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup.