Asian Tour Media widens TV footprint with Golf Channel
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The Asian Tour's global television footprint has been greatly enhanced with new broadcasting agreements announced today with the Golf Channel in North America, Latin America and Japan.
The addition of three new expansive territories from February 2011, with a combined homes reach of 94 million, will see the Asian Tour's dedicated TV programming delivered to over 130 countries and in excess of 420 million households around the world. Added to the coverage the Asian Tour now enjoys on Golfing World, IMG's multimedia daily golf magazine show, the Asian Tour can now be viewed in over 700 million homes each week.
The new agreements are managed by Asian Tour Media, a newly established joint venture company between the Asian Tour and IMG which follows on from the success of the latter's global representation of the Asian Tour's media rights since 2009.
These latest additions, combined with other recent Asian Tour Media agreements with Sky Deutschland, OSN in the Middle East, Group AB in France and My TV in Vietnam, mean the Asian Tour now boasts a truly worldwide TV platform. This includes other major broadcast partners such as Fox in Australia, Sky Sports in the United Kingdom, Guangdong Golf Channel and CCTV in China, ESPN in India, Fox International in the Middle East, JGolf in Korea and Viasat across Scandinavia.
Asian Tour Executive Chairman Kyi Hla Han said the addition of the Golf Channel would now ensure the very best of Asian golf reaches all four corners of the globe.
"We are delighted to expand our reach to these three important markets and it underlines the growing appeal of the Asian Tour and our highly talented players with the major broadcasters of golf.
"The standard of the Asian Tour has increasingly grown over the years and we look forward to giving golf fans in the United States, Canada, Latin America and Japan the opportunity to watch Asia's elite golfers.
"These new agreements by Asian Tour Media will play a big role in further accelerating the growth of the game and deliver wider benefits to our sponsors and partners," said Han.
Michael Mellor, Head of IMG Media, Asia Pacific, added: "The vast breadth of coverage that the Asian Tour now enjoys globally is testament to the increasing interest in the players on the Tour, and to the quality of the tournaments that now take place in Asia. It is also an endorsement of the high standards of production that Asian Tour Media is now setting."
The Asian Tour and IMG announced at the end of last year that they were joining forces in an initial 12-year agreement aimed at developing the game further in Asia.
The joint venture will emulate the foundation behind the success of European Tour Productions - a joint venture between IMG Media and the European Tour β which will inevitably fast track the live broadcast of all Asian Tour events through the combined resources of both organisations.
Asian Tour Media will manage all television production and global distribution, enhancing tour-wide sponsorship agreements for the Asian Tour beginning from this year.
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