Table Tennis Gain New TV-Rights Deal.

ITTF Press Release, 20th October 2011: Table tennis continues to attracted major broadcasters, The International Table Tennis Federation has signed a television rights deal with NHK, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation. The agreement was brokered by TMS International the ITTF’s media and marketing partner (Table Tennis Gain New TV Rights Deal).

The agreement has secured the TV-Rights for the three upcoming World Cup events:

VOLKSWAGEN Women’s World Cup, Singapore, SIN (28-30 October)
LIEBHERR World Team Cup, Magdeburg, GER (3-6 November)
LIEBHERR Men’s World Cup, Paris, FRA (11-13 November)

Anders Thunström, TMS Managing Director, said:

“This is a great sign for table tennis in Japan offering their large table tennis fan-base an opportunity to watch the very best in the world. The World Cup events are exceptionally strong package for broadcasters providing high-class action with a selection of global superstars.”

Undoubtedly the continued surge up the world ranking of the young elite players from Japan is once again stimulating interest in the sport from this traditionally strong table tennis nation. Three players currently occupy a top ten position Jun Mizutani (Men’s WR 6), Kasumi Ishikawa (Women’s WR 7) and Ai Fukuhara (Women’s WR 8); with many more continuing to push up the world standings.

This deal is another indication that there is a continued and ever-increasing global audience for table tennis, which boasted impressive TV viewing figures at the last Olympics. The Women’s Team Final and Men’s Team Semi-Final ranked 5th and 7th respectively in the top 20 viewing figures from the entire games.

In addition table tennis managed to capture the imagination of almost half of the Chinese population during the 2008 Beijing Games with an astonishing 48.2 % tuning in for a minimum of 15 consecutive minutes. (Source: CMS Media Research).

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