IMG in Landmark 20-Year JV with Chinese State Broadcaster

BEIJING/NEW YORK, July 31:
IMG Worldwide and China Central Television (CCTV) have formed a joint venture,
with a 20-year term, to develop and promote sporting events and content across
the Greater China landscape.

The CCTV-IMG Sports
Management Company, headquartered in Beijing, will own and produce a range of
live sporting events and programming in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao for
TV and other platforms, following this year’s Olympics in Beijing. The alliance
will combine IMG’s experience handling sporting events with CCTV’s
reach—17 national channels and several cable networks reaching more than
a billion people.

In making the
announcement, IMG’s chairman and CEO, Ted Forstmann, said, “Today we are
bringing together two international companies with unparalleled global reach.
Pairing IMG’s expertise in creating and developing high-profile sporting events
with the unprecedented reach of China Central Television, China’s leading
television broadcast and media company, will generate many different
opportunities to enhance the sports and media landscape in China. CCTV-IMG
Sports Management will be a formidable international brand—capable of
developing compelling sports and entertainment content for many years to come.”

Jiang Heping, the managing
director and president of CCTV Sports, and chairman of the CCTV-IMG joint
venture, added, “Television has been a catalyst for change and growth in
sports, and CCTV 5, as the leader in sports media in China (with an 80-percent
share of the sports broadcasting market), has been at the forefront. China’s
abundant sports resources and huge market give us an enormous opportunity for
growth, and makes sports one of China’s key competitive industries worldwide.
We are determined to take the lead in China’s sports industry.”

The venture will be led by
Ruan Wei, the managing director of CCTV Sports Promotion, as CEO. He stated:
“IMG’s worldwide leadership in the ownership and management of sports events
and as a producer and distributor of sports content speaks volumes. For CCTV
Sports to leverage this platform enhances China’s sovereign and proprietary
sports rights, domestically and internationally, and enables premier sporting
events to be developed and broadcast in China.”

—By Mansha Daswani