The Spring Media agency has agreed a deal with Italian club AC Milan to act as its exclusive international sales agent for in-house channel Milan TV.
Spring Media will distribute the club channel’s new international programming block with immediate effect, working on sales in a deal that includes the forthcoming 2020-21 season.
The international programming comprises an eight-hour weekly block produced in English about 40 times per season and includes men’s and women’s first team matches, along with various club-focussed ancillary content.
José Moreno, partner at Spring Media, said: “We will apply all our resources and knowhow across rights licensing, production, media management, content creation, and digital distribution to expand into untapped markets globally while raising overall revenue across traditional broadcast as well as social and digital media platforms.”
Casper Stylsvig, chief commercial officer at AC Milan, added: “A key pillar of AC Milan commercial and brand strategy is to be able to distribute our content across the world”
Spring Media has worked with English clubs Arsenal and Chelsea on their club channels since 2019. It has recently secured deals for both in the US (Turner), Asia Pacific (beIN Sports), Sub-Sahara Africa (StarTimes), Mexico (PCTV), the Balkans (SportKlub) and India (Viacom18).
Last month, Torsten Billing, partner at Spring Media, said: “Spring Media have an approach to club media rights where we aim to evolve the perception of what club-TV is and the value it can bring to its broadcast partners.
“It as a unique opportunity for clubs and broadcasters to enter into a partnership where the broadcaster gets year-round access to high quality content, as well as a direct connection to the club and its large and loyal local fanbase.”
The deal with Chelsea runs from 2019-20 to 2021-22 after Spring Media was awarded global licensing responsibilities for the international programming block, including all Chelsea matches (subject to holdbacks), press conferences and behind-the-scenes programming and archive content.
Chelsea TV ceased to exist as a linear television channel shortly before Spring Media took on the contract but the agency sells a three-hour international programming block to broadcasters around the world.