TWI has been re-appointed to distribute Manchester United Television (MUTV) – the world’s premier daily football club channel – worldwide for the next three seasons.

Man Utd has a world fan base of more than 50 million people and the club has always said it is a policy to reach those fans through MUTV.

For the last contract, TWI secured deals in the Middle and Far East, Europe and Africa, in traditional Man Utd-supporting countries such as Hong Kong, Japan, India, China and Greece. This was in addition to established deals in New York and Scandinavia.

But now, under the new contract, both TWI and MUTV expect to venture into many more countries as the demand for club channel content grows.

Now its new enhanced TV package, which can been seen 365 days a year, will include:

* Live and exclusive coverage of United’s USA tour matches against Bayern Munich, Celtic and AC Milan
* Full coverage of all United’s other pre-season games – some also live
* Delayed full coverage of all 38 Premier League matches
* Delayed full coverage of all UEFA Champions’ League matches
* Exclusive interviews to Sir Alex Ferguson and all the United first team squad
* Breaking stories – often the source for the back pages of the newspapers
* Expert analysis of matches by the players themselves from MUTV’s studio inside the Trafford Training Centre
* United legends – famous players such as Bryan Robson, Paddy Crerand, Denis Irwin and Lou Macari – are signed up to the channel and appear every week on fans’ phone-in shows
* Classic United matches from the channel’s vast archive – all the great domestic and European games from the 60’s onwards
* Live coverage of United’s reserve side, plus full highlights of youth and junior teams

Michael Mellor, Senior International Vice President of TWI, said: ‘TWI is delighted to renew our association with the world’s premier football club at a time when the landscape is changing. Club channels are becoming a much bigger force in the global market and Manchester United enjoys worldwide recognition with an array of international stars, so we are very pleased to be working once again with such a winning brand.’

Peter Brookes, Managing Director of MUTV, said: ‘MUTV and TWI have enjoyed a long association. I have always appreciated their pro-active and creative commitment to developing our commercial programme overseas. I am receiving many approaches from overseas broadcasters who have recognised the value of the match rights MUTV has fought hard to attain and the high production values of our content. TWI and MUTV now look forward to harnessing this worldwide interest.’

Further information:

Madeleine Pallas
PR Manager for European Operations
IMG/TWI
tel: +44 (0) 20 8233 7425
mob: +44 (0) 7973 326 422
mpallas@imgworld.com