(11 March 2006 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Football's governing body Fifa's marketing agency Infront Sports and Media has signed an extensive agreement with mobile phone operator T-Mobile International for mobile broadcast rights covering all 64 matches of the 2006 Fifa World Cup

The deal covers seven European territories including host country Germany, Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and the United Kingdom.

T-Mobile acquired the rights for the non-exclusive transmission of near-live and/or delayed video clips of key match footage such as goals via mobile networks to mobile phones. Additionally the rights package includes access to archive video material of the 2002 Fifa World Cup.

In Germany, T-Mobile is entitled to offer live streaming transmissions of 20 selected 2006 FIFA World Cup matches to its customers. The transmission is possible over telecommunications networks (GPRS/UMTS) on a pay basis.

Infront executive director Oliver Seibert said, “We are delighted about this extensive agreement with T-Mobile as the mobile arm of Deutsche Telekom, one of the official partners of the 2006 Fifa World Cup. In Europe, mobile broadcast rights agreements have now been signed covering most of the important football markets. This guarantees a strong mobile coverage during the 2006 Fifa World Cup reaching millions of fans.”