World Footy News

The Collingwood sponsorship deal struck today with Wizard has given Collingwood and football a foot in the door with NBC, and negotiations are under way to have Collingwood matches and highlights packages broadcast into Asia. It may also be the first step in bigger things to come.

Collingwood President Eddie McGuire today announced a new sponsorship deal today with banking company Wizard. As part of the deal it is hoped that General Electric, one of the world's few AAA-rated companies (who also own NBC and Universal Studios), which bought out the local Wizard this year, will be able to provide access to its subsidiary CNBC Asia sports channels for Collingwood to air both matches and highlights packages into 40 million homes in South East Asia.

“The partnership will also seek to provide a direct link to the world leaders in sports broadcasting, NBC, giving Collingwood unparalleled access to the benefits of NBC's broad knowledge in the arena of sports leveraging” Maguire said.

The deal has obvious benefits for Collingwood to become a household name in areas that may not yet be familiar with Australian Rules but can obviously benefit the AFL, the other clubs who play Collingwood and further development of the game in those markets.

Maguire has been outspoken about the benefits of Channel 9 continuing broadcasting AFL into the 2007-2011 period, GE may also be considering being involved, using their considerable media muscle in the AFL’s football media rights chase. The links with McGuire in the Collingwood sponsorship deal could be taken a large step further. If this were to be the case it may also see AFL broadcasts internationally move to a new player who may give the game better exposure in other important international markets.