C5 signs up Nissan for World Cup sponsorship
Car manufacturer Nissan is to sponsor Channel 5’s coverage of England’s football World Cup qualifier in Poland on May 31.
The deal, negotiated for Nissan by Europace, also covers branding for the car maker during the England rugby international against Argentina, to be screened ahead of the football fixture.
Neither side would confirm the value of the deal, but it is thought to exceed 100,000.
Nick Milligan, sales director at C5, says airtime for the football international, which is expected to attract the station’s biggest audience during its launch, is now fully sold.
“While the sponsorship revenue of this one-off sports event is important, the marketing benefits for the channel in encouraging people to tune in their TV sets will be incalculable,” he says.
But Turnstyle, C5’s weekend sports magazine which will carry the fixture, is still seeking a long-term sponsorship partner despite the Nissan deal. Other C5 properties remain untaken by sponsors, including the children’s magazine show The Mag, and late-night youth programme Live and Dangerous.
But Milligan, who has already signed a 1.3m sponsorship deal with Stella Artois covering C5’s nightly 9pm movie slot, is confident he can quickly increase sponsorship revenues for the station.
“C5 will secure a far greater percentage of its revenue from sponsorship than ITV,” he says.