IMG SPORTS MEDIA APPOINTED EXCLUSIVE MEDIA RIGHTS AGENT AND ADVISOR FOR BOWL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Will Negotiate Media Rights for College Football’s Foremost Competition
IMG Sports Media, the sports production and distribution division of IMG Worldwide, and the conferences and universities that participate in the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) today announced the appointment of IMG as the exclusive media rights agent for the event’s upcoming United States television negotiation.
Under the agreement, IMG Sports Media will represent global media rights for the series that begins in 2011. The BCS currently has a contract with Fox Sports to televise the Tostitos Fiesta, FedEx Orange and Allstate Sugar Bowls through January 2010 and the BCS National Championship Games through January 2009.
In making the announcement, Barry Frank, Executive Vice President, Media Sports Programming at IMG, said, "BCS continues to be one of the most prestigious and highly watched properties in all of sports, and we are delighted and honored by the confidence that the conferences and institutions have placed in us with this appointment."
"My colleagues and I are extremely pleased to have IMG representing the conferences and Notre Dame as we head into the upcoming television negotiations,” said John Swofford, Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner and current BCS Coordinator. “Barry Frank brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the table and we are confident in his abilities to represent what's in the best interest for the future of the BCS, our institutions and student-athletes and college football in general."
Operating in 30 countries and with 140 sales executives across the world, IMG Sports Media represents global rights negotiations for all forms of media including television, radio, in-flight, DVD, mobile and broadband and creates commercial rights strategies that help clients in nearly every sports genre increase the value of rights revenue for any media platform.
Over its long history, IMG Sports Media has advised many of the world’s leading sports governing bodies, sporting events and cultural organizations, including: International Olympic Committee (seven Olympic Games, beginning with Calgary in 1988), All England Lawn Tennis Club (Wimbledon), the United States Tennis Association, the NBA, the NFL (foreign rights), the Australian Open, the European Tour, the FA Premier League, the Indian Premier League, International Rugby Board, the International Skating Union, the Triple Crown, the Indianapolis 500, Le Mans 24 Hours and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews (the Open Championship) among many others.
About IMG Sports Media
IMG Sports Media, the sports production and distribution division of IMG Worldwide, is the world’s largest independent producer and distributor of sports programming. IMG Sports Media produces more than 8,000 hours of television, online, mobile and radio sports content across 240 categories of sports, including golf, football (soccer), tennis, cricket, cycling, motor sports and mixed martial arts. IMG Sports Media also represents the broadcast rights to many of the world’s premier sporting events and maintains the world’s largest sports archive with more than 250,000 hours of footage.
About Bowl Championship Series (BCS)
The Bowl Championship Series is a five-game arrangement for post-season college football designed to match the two top-rated teams in a national championship game and to create exciting and competitive matchups between eight other highly regarded teams in four other games.
The BCS is managed by the commissioners of the 11 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision conferences, the director of athletics at the University of Notre Dame, and representatives of the bowl organizations. The conferences are: Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, Sun Belt, Pacific 10, Southeastern and Western Athletic.
More information about Bowl Championship Series is available at www.bcsfootball.org.
Source: IMG Sports Media
|