SportBusiness.com

REAL SIGNS $17.8m MARKETING DEAL WITH PAY-TV GIANT

Spanish pay-TV firm Sogecable has signed a 3.25 billion-peseta ($17.80 m) deal to market soccer club Real Madrid's image, gaining access to its internet, merchandising and franchising business.

The deal - giving Sogecable five percent of Real Madrid's image rights - adds to a July 1999 agreement to broadcast Real Madrid games from 2003 to 2008, Sogecable said.
The two companies will also study jointly exploiting the club's image rights on dedicated television channel Real Madrid TV, advertising on billboards and seating which are currently controlled by Sogecable.
Real Madrid - the reigning European soccer champions - is studying ways to cut its debt which totalled more than $250 million, club President Florentino Perez said last year.
Reuters