After great effort from the Oceania Table Tennis Federation, TMS International and the ITTF Marketing Division, an agreement has been made with Fox Sports in Australia to broadcast World Title Table Tennis events, the World of Table Tennis and the Oceania Cup. Fox Sports, part of the Premier Media group, is the largest cable TV network in the country; famous for its sports content inside Australia.
For table tennis in the region it means that there can be a larger focus on further professionalizing table tennis into a more commercial and marketable product.
The deal was a landmark agreement for Oceania table tennis. It was the first long term package deal for international events in the region and will now mean that from 2010 to 2012 Fox Sports will broadcast the Men’s World Cup, Women’s World Cup, World Team Cup, Pro Tour Grand Finals each year and also broadcast the monthly magazine program World of Table Tennis. However, and perhaps more importantly, is that due to the excellent cooperation between all the parties Fox Sports will also broadcast the Oceania Cup each year starting from 2011. Not only will they broadcast the Oceania Cup but in 2011 Fox has also agreed to produce the event at international standards.
Fox Sports Committed
Director for acquisition and programming for Fox Sports in Australia Mr. Tony Sinclair said in a statement “Fox Sports is delighted to have concluded a formal partnership with the ITTF. This agreement reflects the growing status of the sport in the Australian market, as well as the consistently high level of coverage offered to broadcasters. We look forward to a long and successful partnership with the ITTF.”
OTTF President Proud of first small Step
For the Oceania Table Tennis Federation President Mr. Patrick Gillmann it was also a milestone. During an interview with the ITTF he said “We have finally realized one of our major aims to start to get more table tennis on TV in the region. It means the OTTF is now in a stronger position to professionalize and promote our sport and most importantly look for ways to start finding sponsorship money outside the traditional source”.
Full of thanks he added “The ITTF, through its Marketing Division’s Steve Dainton and Mr. Anders Thunstrom from TMS International have helped tremendously our development officer Mr. Scott Houston with the tools to make this deal possible, for that I am very thankful to the ITTF President Mr. Adham Sharara for his full support. We now need to work on getting more Nations in our region to achieve the same and ensure our events are organized at the highest level, but for our largest and most important market in Oceania we can now offer Australians the chance to watch more international and regional table tennis on television than they have been able to do for some time. Importantly it is a way for us to help Table Tennis Australia seriously consider hosting future major international events. While there is a lot more work to be done our first step has now been achieved and for this small step I am very proud and thankful for those who had the vision and motivation to achieve it”.
Australians now can see more than just Football and Cricket!
The Table Tennis Australian President, Mr. Will Goodyear, was also very happy in a statement adding to the praise “Congratulations to the team from ITTF and OTTF for their successful negotiations with the Premier Media Group (Fox Sports) to bring professional table tennis to the television sets of the people of Australia. Special mention goes to the ITTF Marketing Director Mr. Steve Dainton, OTTF Development Officer Mr. Scott Houston and especially the President of OTTF Mr. Patrick Gillmann whose passion and commitment to this concept over many years has led to a very successful outcome”.
Looking to the Future
For Oceania this was a small but very important step to become more professional and eventually more commercial. The next step remains to make agreements with more countries in the region and the rest of the developing table tennis world. “One small step for the OTTF, one large step for the future of table tennis”
Source ittf.com
