Juve Turn To Markets Of The East
Tuesday 20th March 2001
Juventus have followed Manchester United in trying to exploit the potential of the markets in the Far East, and have signed an agreement with the English firm Giraffe Entertainment to increase their profile in the Asia Pacific region.
Giraffe will now negotiate in the Far East for use of the Juventus logo and trademark. Club president Umberto Agnelli and former playing great Roberto Bettega will be in Tokyo on Monday to discuss the initiative.
The agreement with Giraffe will last for three years, with an option to extend that by as much as another six. Estimates suggest that in that first three year period, a minimum of �2.4 billion could be raised at an outlay of �1.4 billion.
That figure could yet increase, as public awareness of football increases with next year's World Cup in Japan and South Korea. Even now, though, Serie A and Juve in particular are hugely popular, with an average of 220 million people on Asia watching Juventus games on a total of 77 TV channels.
Asia is also the third greatest source of hits on Juve's official website, after Italy and the USA.
