Aviva today announced an extension of their partnership with Premiership Rugby. The contract extension, which starts in the 2014-15 season, will cover a golden era for club rugby in England and will include a period when the country will host a Rugby World Cup and when rugby union will finally re-join the Olympic movement.
Aviva today announced an extension of their partnership with Premiership Rugby.
The contract extension, which starts in the 2014-15 season, will cover a golden era for club rugby in England and will include a period when the country will host a Rugby World Cup and when rugby union will finally re-join the Olympic movement.
Two months before the start of a new television contract with BT Sport, worth up to £152 million, it shows that Premiership Rugby is enjoying strong growth and increasing popularity.
"We are delighted to be extending our partnership with Aviva until the end of the 2016-17 season," said Premiership Rugby Chief Executive Mark McCafferty.
"Aviva has been a hugely supportive partner since joining the Premiership Rugby family for the start of the 2010-11 season. It's crucial for any professional sport to forge a strong bond with their title sponsor, and we have certainly done this with Aviva.
"The announcement comes ahead of tomorrow’s Aviva Premiership Final between Leicester Tigers and Northampton Saints in front of 82,000 fans at Twickenham Stadium and at the end of another hugely competitive and exciting season.”
Robin Spencer, CEO UK & Ireland GI, from Aviva: ‘“The extension of our partnership with Premiership Rugby is a testament to the fact that it continues to work well for the business and deliver significant returns. It has been very successful in strengthening the relationships we have with our customers and, during an exciting period of growth and interest in the game, will be increasingly used as a key part of our brand and business development.”
Aviva have been involved with rugby union in England on and off the field, delivering the community game in tandem with their support of professional rugby.
Mark McCafferty added. "The Aviva Premiership Rugby Schools Programme, an initiative which introduces more than 39,000 young people each season to the game through tag rugby, creating a vibrant and effective rugby legacy in England.
"The scheme targets new-to-rugby, non-traditional rugby schools. It provides five weeks of coaching and teacher training, grassroots club links, plus resources for the school to continue to play rugby in the future."
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For further information, please contact:
Heleana Greeves, Aviva: t: +44 (0) 207 662 0405 e: Heleana.Greeves@aviva.com
Ed Leech, H&K: t: +44 (0) 207 413 3207 m: 07917 111 349 e: Edward.Leech@hkstrategies.com
Paul Morgan, Premiership Rugby: t: + 44 (0) 208 831 7909 e: pmorgan@premiershiprugby.com
Notes to editors:
Aviva provides insurance, savings and investment products to 34 million customers worldwide.
We are the UK’s largest insurer with over 14 million customers and one of Europe’s leading providers of life and general insurance. We combine strong life insurance, general insurance and asset management businesses under one powerful brand. We are committed to serving our customers well in order to build a stronger, sustainable business, which makes a positive contribution to society, and for which our people are proud to work.
We are ranked as one of the UK’s top ten most valuable brands and Aviva Plc is in the top 10% of socially responsible companies globally in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. In 2012 we invested £5.7m into our UK communities. One in three of our employees were involved in community investment activities which included giving nearly 30,000 hours.
Aviva is working in partnership with Railway Children through the Aviva Street to School programme to get children living or working on UK streets back into everyday life, especially education. Find out more at www.aviva.co.uk/street-to-school.
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