KirchMedia GmbH & Co. KGaA, owner of the global television rights to the FIFA World Cups in Korea and Japan in 2002 and in Germany in 2006, reached agreement yesterday with the UK television operators, BBC and ITV, on broadcasting the two World Cups in the UK.

As a result, the public broadcasting corporation BBC and the commercial network ITV will be acquiring the broadcasting rights to all 64 games of the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups.

Dr. Alexander Liegl, Managing Director Sports Rights at KirchMedia said: ‘We are very pleased that based on today´s contract for the UK, agreement has been reached in a third key European market, following previous agreements announced in Germany and Spain. This is the largest sports-rights agreement ever signed by UK´s two major free-to-air television stations.’

Liegl expressly highlighted the constructive atmosphere during talks with the British partners over the last two weeks, since negotiations had previously been at a standstill for several months.

At the same time, Alexander Liegl confirmed that a contract on the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cup rights has been concluded with TV Globo for Brazil and with DIRECTV for Argentina, Chile, Columbia, Mexico, Uruguay and Venezuela.

This week, the agreement with the Korean Pool – a consortium consisting of the public broadcasters KBS (Korea Broadcasting System) and MBC (Munwha Broadcasting Corporation) as well as the private TV-station SBS (Seoul Broadcasting System) – covering the host market Korea was finally signed.

For further information please contact:

KirchMedia GmbH & Co. KGaA
Hartmut Schultz
Corporate Spokesman
Telephone: +49 (0)89 9956-2325
hartmut.schultz@kirchgruppe.de