ITV Nets Carling For Fantasy Football Sponsorship Deal

ITV has secured lager giant Carling as the exclusive sponsor of a new series of its popular Fantasy Football chat show designed to coincide with the impending Euro 2004 championships.

The show, fronted by comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner, is returning by popular demand and will air this summer on ITV1 with repeats on ITV2.

Des Johnson, Carling’s brand director, said: “The sponsorship of Fantasy Football fits perfectly into Carling’s recently announced Love Football campaign, which encompasses our wide-ranging involvement in the beautiful game.”

He added: “The key challenge for any brand involved in football during Euro 2004 is to achieve cut-through by differentiation and the passion and humour of Fantasy Football provides Carling with a great opportunity to help achieve this goal.”

The deal follows several high-profile sports sponsorship deals tied up by ITV. Last month saw the broadcaster secure information technology firm BenQ as the exclusive sponsor of its dedicated Euro 2004 website, providing news, statistics and free video highlights of the tournament to fans throughout the competition (see ITV Nets Tech Firm For Euro 2004 Website Sponsorship).

ITV has also predicted record advertising revenues throughout the tournament, claiming to be riding the ‘most buoyant’ airtime advertising market for four years. The company claims a number of high-profile motoring, finance, alcohol and sports manufacturers are clamouring to associate themselves with the event, further lining the broadcaster’s pockets (see ITV Sees Revenue Surge As Euro 2004 Approaches).

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com

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