TWI has won a four-year deal for the international broadcasting rights to French football’s top league, becoming the new partner of the LFP (Ligue de Football Professionel.)

TWI gained the rights for all territories outside France after offering a varied and diverse service to France’s Ligue 1.

Its multi-layered strategy will:

produce different versions of highlights, specifically, edited versions of live matches as TWI already does for the English Premier League

also produce a multi-language version of a new international website

promote the image of their League through regular updates and Club / Player profiles throughout regular news and features in various well-established magazine shows such as Futbol Mundial and Trans World Sport

harness the expertise of SNTV, the sports news agency joint venture between Associated Press and TWI, who will also play a very pro-active role in promoting the League
organise worldwide tours and special events with the Clubs

Rather than concentrating on trading the broadcast rights, TWI will instead heavily invest time, energy and expertise in promoting the French League as a brand.

It will be underpinned by the activities of the IMG Football agent division who will devise a co-ordinated approach to build interest in French national stars abroad. The IMG sponsorship division will also be involved in marketing the programmes.

Fulco van Kooperen, TWI Vice President and Head of Football, said: ‘This approach will hopefully inspire other governing bodies to think about the big picture rather than the short term profit.’

Stephane Schindler, International Vice President, Head of Media Business Affairs, France, said: ‘ With the recent performances of Monaco, Lyon and Olympique Marseille, this is a dream start the French League deserves.’

Michel Masquelier, TWI’s Senior Vice-President – Head of Sales, said: ‘In the short term, we are confident of tripling audiences, and, if played correctly over the next seven years, we expect the French League be in the world Top Three in terms of media profile.’

The French deal follows IMG/TWI’s recent success in renewing its contract to handle the sponsorship, licensing and television rights of the next two Rugby World Cups in 2007 and 2011.

Further information:

Madeleine Pallas, PR Manager for European Operations,
TWI, Tel +44 (0) 208 233 7425 or +44 (0) 7973 326 422
mpallas@imgworld.com