Villa markets media rights

Aston Villa, the Premier League football club, is putting all its media rights up for sale.

The review will encompass the club’s domestic and international television, mobile, home video, website, matchday video and broadband, and puts an emphasis on being fan-friendly.

The tender has been triggered by a need to negotiate a new contract for the club’s website, which is held by Premium TV and ends in the summer. T-Mobile is its mobile phone platinum partner and Matchday runs its stadium TV output.

Chief executive Richard FitzGerald, who joined Villa in January, says: “The development and presentation of our media is an important part of the team’s image.

“The formation of this media tender is a crucial step in Aston Villa FC’s development. The emphasis is to be on the fans’ experience, to simplify the overall production process and to create an integrated marketing proposition for our partners.”

Phil Mepham, Villa spokesman, says the tender will be driven specifically by what the fans want, with an essential element being the website.

“We are looking at taking a lot more of the editorial content in-house, over and above the current Sky/BBC broadcast contract we have. We could certainly centralise the content for mobile phones for instance,” he says.

The review comes seven months after US billionaire businessman Randy Lerner paid £62.6m for the club.