ITV has confirmed global financial group Santander and beer brand Carling will join Sony as official sponsors of its coverage of the Fifa World Cup in Brazil next month.
The three brands have taken multimillion pound integrated packages that include sponsorship of all live coverage across ITV’s porfolio of channels ITV, ITV4 and ITV Player.
The Sony deal was brokered with ITV Commercial by MediaCom, Carat negotiated Santander's involvement and ZenithOptimedia handled Carling.
The sponsorship creative for the partners will be handled by Hey Human on behalf of Sony, WCRS on for Santander and Creature London for Carling.
In addition, Sony will be the first product placement partner of ITV’s 2014 World Cup coverage, providing its Sony Xperia Z2 devices for use across both broadcast and online content. The electronics brand will also be the exclusive partner of ITV’s 2014 World Cup Social Media Campaign.
Gary Knight, content director at ITV Commercial, said: "We are delighted to confirm Sony, Santander and Carling as partners for ITV’s coverage of the 2014 World Cup live from Brazil. ITV is proud to be the home of Team England and we’re very much looking forward to welcoming these major partners on board for this summer’s tournament."
ITV has also confirmed it has no plans to show ads if the players take drinks breaks during this World Cup, which will be introduced after 30 minutes of each half if the temperature is forecast to be above 32 degrees.
Each break, if necessary, would last three minutes and official World Cup broadcasters were given the option by Fifa to runs ads during the time, but ITV has won plaudits for its decision to remain focused on the game.
ITV will be broadcasting England's games against Uruguay in Sao Paulo and Costa Rica in Belo Horizonte.
England's opening game against Italy in Brazil’s Manaus is expected to feature water breaks but is being shown by the BBC.
ITV’s plans for coverage of the football tournament include the installation of a fan park at the Old Granada Studios site in Manchester and the introduction of a football-themed podcast, hosted by Alan Davies. The podcast, distributed free via iTunes and ITV.com, will run throughout the four-week tournament.
ITV’s core coverage will feature regular sport pundits Roy Keane and Lee Dixon, alongside host Adrian Chiles in Brazil.
Additional commentary will also be provided by Sunderland manager Gus Poyet, Scotland manager Gordon Strachan, former England player Ian Wright, France World Cup winner Patrick Viera, former England manager Glen Hoddle, Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill and England player Andros Townsend.
