ITV announces Sony as sponsor of its England football coverage of FIFA World Cup
 

ITV have announced that Sony will be the exclusive sponsor of ITV's coverage of the England football team's qualifying campaign for the 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament in South Africa. England's home qualifying journey for World Cup 2010 gets underway today, with live coverage of England v Kazakhstan live on ITV1. Steve Rider will present live coverage from Wembley from 4.30pm.

Over the next two years, Sony's sponsorship will run across all of England's home qualification matches for the World Cup and all away friendlies and will include a full highlights package encompassing all England internationals. Sony's partnership with ITV also incorporates a full multi-media package across all ITV's broadcast, online, interactive and mobile assets. The multi-platform sponsorship agreement will see Sony become sole integrated sponsor across all England Internationals content on ITV, including break bumpers in live matches, and supported by interactive TV. Football fans will also have the opportunity to watch live streaming of games throughout the qualifying campaign and post match clips of each game online on itv.com and ITV Local. Gary Knight, Sponsorship, AFP and Interactive Sales Director for ITV, emphasised the importance of the new deal: "We are delighted that Sony will partner ITV in   what promises to be an enormously exciting journey for the English national side towards the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa. The England Internationals are a hugely important component of ITV's premium free-to-air football offer. "ITV is the only terrestrial broadcaster to offer fans free live, premium football across all platforms, over the next two years." Quality Matt Coombe, General Manager, Marketing, Sony United Kingdom Ltd, highlighted the reason for Sony's increasing involvement with football: "With Sony's global commitment to FIFA, the ITV sponsorship is the perfect way to amplify our existing involvement in this space, especially as football has become more of a focus in our strategic direction over the next twelve months. "Our audio-visual offering and products allow the consumer to really bring football to life - the new 200Hz Bravia combined with the games being shown on ITV HD gives a new standard in image quality and enjoyment. Sony is proud to be supporting the English team and is behind the boys all the way".