Inmarsat Limited, the global mobile satellite communications company has signed a contract to become the first global sponsor of the World Rally Championship commencing next year. International Sportsworld Communicators (ISC) owns the TV and commercial rights to the World Rally Championship.
ISC has been specifically targeting Inmarsat for this sponsorship as it is anticipated that the company's groundbreaking satellite and technological capabilities will help develop new aspects of the live TV product. ISC's vision is to be a top five global sports content provider to broadcast media by 2005.
Inmarsat will be the WRC's exclusive global partner and will benefit from considerable branding opportunities during the course of the 14-race season. WRC gives Inmarsat a high profile and highly demanding showcase for the company's world-leading communications solutions such as Global Area Network, a high speed data solution used extensively in Afghanistan recently by broadcasters reporting the news through live satellite videophone.
Michael Butler managing director of Inmarsat Ltd. said, "We are extremely excited about this opportunity to work with the World Rally Championship, the most exciting and challenging sporting events in the world.
This sponsorship will have a significant impact on driving and indeed accelerating our brand awareness across our core enterprise markets, as well as providing a unique opportunity for our partners to participate with us and leverage off our title sponsorship.
We will also benefit from a comprehensive set of promotion rights both at all the individual Rallies and other marketing programmes, which will make this an extremely exciting opportunity for us."
The WRC runs from January to November and includes 14 races in four continents in Europe, Africa, South America and Asia Pacific and will be broadcast to over 186 different countries.
Inmarsat Ltd owns and operates a global satellite network and delivers its solutions through a global distribution network of approximately 200 distributors and other service providers operating in over 150 countries to end users in the maritime, land and aeronautical sectors.
