央视与老外签了20年卖身契

IMG and CCTV sign 20-year deal

Sports marketing company, IMG Worldwide, has agreed an exclusive 20-year deal with China’s national television broadcaster, CCTV, to develop and market new sports events.

According to US paper, the Wall Street Journal, the venture hopes to capitalise on the post-Olympics commercialisation of sports in China and intends to develop sports and entertainment events across China for broadcast on CCTV - whose daily audience of 680 million people. In addition, IMG will sell sponsorship rights to those events.

Ted Forstmann, IMG's chairman and chief executive, said: "The fundamental purpose of the joint venture is to marry what CCTV does in China and what IMG does all over the world. "If we are successful [in China], there are going to be a whole lot of events that exist that do not exist today," he added.

The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.