RCS Employs IMG to Increase Broadcast Revenues for Cycling Events

Sports Marketing group IMG has inked an eight-year agreement with Italian media company RCS to try to boost broadcast revenues for its cycling events, capitalising on growing international interest in the sport.

The sports event arm of RCS, which publishes Italian newspapers Gazzetta dello Sport and Corriere della Sera, is seeking a bigger worldwide audience for races it organises, such as the three-week Giro d’Italia (Tour of Italy).

“We are sure that IMG Media’s expertise will help us to improve the value and increase the international visibility of the Giro d’Italia and other RCS races,” said Giacomo Catano, the RCS Sport chief executive.

RCS Sport runs 32 days of international cycling each year, including the Milan-San Remo one-day classic.

Catano said he did not believe that the Giro, held in May, was condemned to live for ever in the shadow of the Tour de France, the world’s best-known cycle race, which begins this weekend. The Giro is currently broadcast to 165 countries, compared with 190 for the French race.

“We don’t feel in competition with the others. We want to increase the value of cycling,” Catano told a press briefing in London. “In the United States, cycling has a fantastically positive trend. Some say cycling has become the new golf.”

RCS Sport’s managing director, Michele Acquarone, said the deal with IMG would build on efforts to bring more international riders to the Giro in recent years and experiment with starting the race in other European nations.

“We are sure that IMG can help us to improve our product,” he said.

RCS has worked with Italian state broadcaster RAI to produce and distribute content internationally.

The agreement with IMG runs until 2020 and covers global distribution of audiovisual rights in all forms – to broadcasters and digital media.