Namaqua in Sky Sponsorship deal
Thursday 3 July 2008
SKY SPORTS has secured Raisin Social brand NAMAQUA as broadcast sponsor of its live Twenty20 Cup coverage.
Raisin Social, an independent, family-owned wine business, supported Sky’s exclusively live coverage of the Twenty20 Cup from 11 June to 26th July 2008.
The sponsorship included on-air coverage through idents and break bumpers logos around every match, during play and in the interval, as well as sponsorship of the highlights on Sky Sports.
Featuring county cricket sides split into three zonal groups (North, Mid/Wales/West, and South), Sky Sports ishowed 18 exclusively live matches from this summer’s Twenty20 Cup, including at least three Quarter-Finals for the first time, and started with Kent vs Sussex at Canterbury on 11 June. The final is from the Rose Bowl in Hampshire on 26 July.
Raisin Social is a fiercely independent, family owned wine business, bringing in hand picked wines from all over the world and supplying across the UK to all the major supermarkets, off licences and a wide range of smaller stores, hotels and restaurants. They are one of the most successful wine importers in the UK, and yet remain a small team of enthusiastic wine lovers, headed up by Simon Halliday, owner and MD, who started the business back in 1986. Raisin Social has spearheaded the Namaqua range of wines which have proved a runaway success, universally popular for their fresh and fruity styles and available in both bottle and box. Namaqua wines sold over 1 million cases for the first time last year and sales continue to romp ahead.
Sky Sports has screened Twenty20 cricket since the launch of the Twenty20 Cup by the ECB in 2003. The broadcaster has shown the competition live each summer since, together with international matches involving England and other national sides.
The tournament is part of another busy summer of live cricket for Sky Sports. Sky will broadcast live and uninterrupted ball-by-ball coverage of England’s remaining One-Day Internationals and the International Twenty20 match against New Zealand, as well as the whole series against South Africa, with several features covering a variety of cricketing topics screened during breaks in play.
Live coverage is also in high definition with a commentary team that boasts 1,283 international caps and several Wisden Cricketers of the Year. Cricket AM and Cricket Writers on TV are shown on weekend mornings during the summer.