Milan, September 23nd, 2008 – The agreement between Rcs Sport, Rai Sport and Rai Trade, for the TV coverage of Italian cycling events and the marketing of their rights in Italy and worldwide has been renewed for the third time in a row. The partnership, which successfully began in 2000, results thus happily consolidated for the four-year forthcoming period 2009-2012.
The events considered by such agreement are: the Giro d’Italia, the Tirreno-Adriatico, the Tour of the Latium, the two Italian “Monuments” among the big Classics (Milan-Sanremo and the Tour of Lombardy), and the most epic one, the Montepaschi Eroica.
The agreement takes into consideration for the three parties involved – Rai Sport, Rai Trade, Rcs Sport – a number of interconnected obligations bound to ensure to the public the highest show quality, as far as leading athletes, technological supports and a wider and wider circulation of the events, are concerned.
The last item specifically refers to the Giro d’Italia, which in the last editions drained an audience in constant growth (in 2008, for the three weeks duration of the race, a 250 million people audience worldwide) and in 2009, for the centennial edition which appears since now as an epoch-making event, should reach a greater number of Countries than the 142 which followed the 2008 edition.
As far as the aforesaid agreement is concerned, Angelo Zomegnan, Rcs Sport cycling races director worded as follows: “The renewal of our partnership with Rai confirms the effectiveness of our common efforts towards excellence and internationalization of the Giro d’Italia, as well as other cycling events promoted by the Gazzetta dello Sport. In our position as organization managers we wish to express our appreciation for the proper attention which Rai Sport dedicated to the production of our events by seeking quality standards steering to excellence, in the spirit of Rai tradition, and for Rai Trade’s commitment in winning new foreign markets”.
Massimo De Luca, Rai Sport manager, commented on the agreement in these terms: “To our great satisfaction Rai Sport is going to pursue also for the coming period 2009-2012, its activity regarding the Giro d’Italia, following the track of an, by now, historic tradition. In 2008 we made the decision to use the Giro as a launching pad for the new thematic channel Rai Sport Più, while widening and supplementing its program. The outcome was extremely gratifying, which put us in a position to renew and improve still further the experience. Consequently Rai Sport intends to ensure the Giro d’Italia a further wider coverage by relating an event which is an intrinsic part of Italian tradition’s history”.
“The Giro d’Italia and the big classic cycling races – says Carlo Nardello, Rai Trade’s Managing Director – are the true jewel of the crown of a sport which from our Country reaches fans in their home all over the world. The philosophy of our project, which won the competition put up by Rcs, is to improve the importance of cycling considered as a fundamental asset of the broadcasting system, and to promote the Country system worldwide
For more information:
Press Office RCS Sport
Sergio Meda
Tel. – +39 02 62 82 87 59
E-mail – sergio.meda@rcs.it
Rai Trade
Lorenzo Briani
Tel. –+39 06 37 49 82 70
E-mail – briani@raitrade.it