Pre-season club football tournament the International Champions Cup has bolstered its reach in host market China by agreeing a four-year rights deal with state broadcaster CCTV.
CCTV Sports & Entertainment’s contract with ICC organising bodies Relevent Sports and Catalyst Media Group will cover the 2017 to 2020 editions of the tournament and makes CCTV the official television broadcasting partner of the International Champions Cup in mainland China.
CCTV previously covered the ICC in 2013 and 2014 and will broadcast all matches exclusively on television in mainland China on CCTV-5 and/or CCTV-5+. CCTV will also have the opportunity to transmit ICC matches on its digital platforms on a non-exclusive basis.
Catalyst, exclusive developer of the ICC in the Asia-Pacific region and global distributor of event media rights, will also work with CCTVSE to promote the tournament in China, including various initiatives to bring fans closer to the top football stars and clubs who compete. The past two years of the ICC have been televised by provincial broadcasters in the country.
In the third consecutive year of ICC being held in China, AC Milan, Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Inter Milan and Olympique Lyonnais will feature in four games in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Nanjing next month.