MUMBAI: ESPN Star Sports (ESS) and Malaysia’s Ministry of Youth and Sports have announced plans for a multi-year strategic partnership alliance to raise participation and interest in sport in the country.
ESS will align with the Ministry’s National Fitness Council to enhance the sporting culture in Malaysia through a series of activities and programmes. These will be rolled out over the period of the proposed strategic alliance, starting from next year.
Malaysia's Minister of Youth and Sport, Datuk Azalina Dato Othman said, “The Ministry of Youth and Sports is looking into this exciting strategic partnership in detail and want it to be a positive step towards bringing high-quality, high-level sports news and events to all Malaysians. ESPN Star Sports is one of the most recognisable brands in both sports reporting as well as sports event staging and bringing them to Malaysia will have a positive impact on sports as well as business and tourism.”
This co-operative effort, the first of its kind in Malaysia between an international media company and the Ministry of Youth and Sport, will launch with two initial elements. The first will showcase a range of on-air initiatives featuring sports popular with Malaysians as well as local athlete profiles. The second element will be focused on the staging of key sporting events around the country evolving around the 8 core sports, eco-nature-type sports and martial arts.
ESS Asia MD Jamie Davis said, “We share the Ministry of Youth and Sport’s vision and ambition to build a strong, long-term and active sporting culture in Malaysia. This alliance has the trademarks of an intelligent and exciting partnership and I am confident our efforts will touch all citizens of Malaysia and achieve what’s it’s been set up to do.
“We are naturally delighted to be offered this important opportunity to showcase our network’s unrivalled sports programming and demonstrate our expertise in staging world-class events in Asia. In view that 2005 is the ‘International Year of Sports and Physical Education’ as declared by the United Nations adds further significance to this landmark association”.
Collaborative efforts between ESS and the Ministry of Youth and Sports have also been done in the past. ESS and the Ministry of Youth and Sport’s partnership history includes the successful staging of the Asian X Games in Kuala Lumpur in 2003 and 2004 as well as the KL World 5’s futsal tournament which was also held in Kuala Lumpur in 2003.
