TalkTalk announces sponsorship of The X Factor

TalkTalk, FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) and ITV announced today TalkTalk’s sponsorship deal for one of the UK’s biggest entertainment programmes, The X Factor. TalkTalk says it will use its official sponsorship of The X Factor 2009 to confirm its position as the "brighter phone and broadband company".

Sponsoring the multi BAFTA award-winning show for the first time can be seen as marking TalkTalk’s status as the biggest supplier of broadband to UK homes, following its acquisition of Tiscali UK in July. The on and off-air sponsor package, which includes broadcasts on ITV1 and ITV2, as well as sponsorship of the BAFTA nominated The X Factor website (http://xfactor.itv.com/), begins at the show launch later on in the summer. The sponsorship is supported by TalkTalk’s new ‘brighter’ advertising campaign that uses light graffiti. TalkTalk is giving viewers the chance to become "bright stars" themselves by creating their own light graffiti "bright dance" which could appear on prime time TV during The X Factor idents. Budding stars can visit http://www.talktalk.co.uk/xfactor to record their own "bright dance" and winning entries could be broadcast on ITV. Fever Olivia Streatfeild, Marketing Director at TalkTalk, said: "We are really excited to kick off our sponsorship of the nation's favourite entertainment programme and we can't wait to bring the magic of The X Factor to our four million customers". TalkTalk will be bringing The X Factor fever home to its customers through themed products and downloadable X Factor parties, together with the chance to win tickets to the live shows.     Bhavit Chandrani, Sponsorship Manager at ITV, said: "The X Factor is one of the most talked about shows on British television and TalkTalk is the perfect partner to take advantage of this fully integrated sponsorship package". Jana Gray, VP Sponsorship UK, FremantleMedia Enterprises, who oversees the off-air sponsorship activation, added: "We are delighted to be working with such an important brand as TalkTalk in helping to bring their extensive multimedia sponsorship programme to life. "The X Factor franchise keeps growing and we are certain that this sponsorship together with TalkTalk’s new brand campaign will provide a strong communication platform and an exciting proposition for TalkTalk’s customers". The X Factor is a talkbackTHAMES/Syco TV co-production, talkbackTHAMES being the UK production company owned by FremantleMedia.