Astley was speaking from Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China, where a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between the ABU and the sports marketing company, Dentsu Inc, representing the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA).
The MOU - which contains the heads of agreement for the broadcast rights for the 15th Asian Games for 35 territories in the ABU region - was signed by Astley and Kiyoshi Nakamura, deputy director and general manager of broadcasting & image rights for Dentsu.
“We will be taking the Games into more than 30 countries across the Asia-Pacific region, a tremendous increase over what we were able to achieve for the last Asian Games in Busan,” Astley said.
He added: “I must congratulate the OCA and Dentsu for embracing our idea of getting a television deal in place early so that we could set about the most important task of creating sponsorship and advertising value.
“By committing early we have been able to dramatically increase the number of territories and the potential TV audience.
“That is a tremendous result and should excite brand managers around the region.”
