Sprint becomes Official Sponsor of the Tony Awards® and Live Broadway®
OVERLAND PARK, Kan., & NEW YORK -/June 03, 2004 The Wi-Fi Technology Forum/- Sprint announced it has entered into sponsorship agreements to become the official communications service provider of both Live Broadway and the American Theatre Wing’s Tony Awards, scheduled to be broadcast June 6, 2004.
As part of the Tony Awards sponsorship agreement, Sprint will also serve as exclusive sponsor for the Tony Awards media center, where Sprint will provide a full array of products and services, including the latest Sprint PCS Vision Picture Phones and Sprint PCS Vision Video Phones for Tony Award recipients to share their celebration with friends and family.
Additionally, live from the red carpet before the show, Sprint will present select nominees with gifts of specially decorated Sprint PCS Vision Phones. Commissioned exclusively for the Tony Awards, the phones were custom-designed with Swarovski Crystals to reflect current productions. Last month, Sprint provided all Tony Award nominees with Sprint PCS Vision Phones and three months of service; presenters will receive the same gift backstage following their appearance.
“As the Tony Awards enter the 21st century, we are pleased to enter into a strategic relationship with Sprint that will complement and strengthen the Tonys’ long-running celebration of excellence in the theatre,” said Howard Sherman, Executive Director of The American Theatre Wing.
Sprint’s sponsorship agreement with the League of American Theatres and Producers, Inc. (“Live Broadway”) includes a presenting sponsorship of the Live Broadway Web site, www.LiveBroadway.com. Sprint will also be the title sponsor of The Broadway Lineâ at 1-888-BROADWAY, the official toll-free hotline for information and tickets to Broadway shows in New York City and on tour in 140 cities across North America. Additionally, pending a successful completion of negotiations and a final agreement, Sprint would sponsor the 12th annual Broadway on Broadwayâ concert, a free outdoor event held on Sept.12, 2004, that kicks off the fall Broadway season (produced with the Times Square Alliance).
“Arts and culture play an important role in the communities in which we live and work,” said Mike Goff, vice president of Sprint Corporate Brand Management. “Sprint is fully committed to enriching these communities, and the Broadway platform gives us an excellent opportunity to support and honor outstanding cultural achievement, while building our business through a number of exciting opportunities that will reach a very high-profile audience in New York City and throughout the country.”
Jed Bernstein, president of the League of American Theatres and Producers, Inc. said, “This is a significant new relationship for the Broadway industry. We are thrilled that such a creative and successful communications marketer has decided to align with Broadway and look forward to working with Sprint and its tremendous marketing assets to promote Broadway entertainment to even more consumers.”
The new relationships will bring benefits to Sprint PCS Vision customers as well, thanks to a wireless polling application from Proteus, the leading U.S. provider of wireless applications and carrier connectivity to the content community. The live poll will take place during the 2004 Tony Awards broadcast, asking registered Sprint PCS Vision customers to choose their picks in three popular categories:
· What show will win Best Musical?
· Who will win Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical?
· Who will win Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical?
Registration will be available from the “Entertainment” folder on the Sprint PCS Vision home page. On June 6, all registered users will be notified of the poll via text message.
About Sprint
Sprint is a global integrated communications provider serving more than 26 million customers in over 100 countries. With approximately 65,000 employees worldwide and over $26 billion in annual revenues in 2003, Sprint is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying state-of-the-art network technologies, including the United States’ first nationwide all-digital, fiber-optic network and an award-winning Tier 1 Internet backbone. Sprint provides local communications services in 39 states and the District of Columbia and operates the largest 100-percent digital, nationwide PCS wireless network in the United States. For more information, visit
http://www.sprint.com.
About the American Theatre Wing’s Tony Awards
The Antoinette Perry Tony Awards® are bestowed annually on theatre professionals for distinguished achievement on Broadway. The Tony is one of the most coveted awards in the entertainment industry and the annual telecast - the night America watches Broadway - is considered one of the most prestigious programs on television. The Tony Awards are presented by Tony Award Productions, a joint venture of the American Theatre Wing and The League of American Theatres and Producers, Inc., and will air nationally on CBS on Sunday, June 6, 2004 from 8-11 p.m. ET/PT.
http://www.TonyAwards.com
About The League of American Theatres and Producers, Inc.
The League of American Theatres and Producers, Inc., founded in 1930, is the national trade organization for the Broadway industry, which operates under the Live Broadway® trademark. With over 500 members including theater owners, operators, producers and presenters of Broadway productions in New York and 140 cities throughout the U.S. and Canada, the League and its members help bring Broadway to more than 25 million people annually. Some Broadway industry programs initiated by the League include The Broadway Line®, a national toll-free Broadway information hotline (1-888-BROADWAY) and Broadway on Broadway®, a free outdoor concert held in Times Square each September attracting more than 50,000 spectators(with the Times Square Alliance). In addition, the League co-presents the annual Tony Awards® with the American Theatre Wing. Visit
http://www.LiveBroadway.com for more information about the League.
The American Theatre Wing
For nearly 90 years, the American Theatre Wing has been unswerving in its mission of education, cultivating audiences and celebrating excellence in theatre. Founded as an outreach program of the entertainment community during the First World War, The Wing has undertaken a variety of programs over its long life, ranging from the celebrated Stage Door Canteen in the ’40s, to an acclaimed training school in the ’50s, to initiatives that cultivated new audiences in schools over the past several decades. For 25 years, the Wing has sponsored an ongoing series of “Working in the Theatre” seminars featuring the top artists in theatre, broadcast on CUNY-
TV in New York and now available for viewing internationally on the Wing’s website. Its newest program, “Downstage Center,” is a weekly theatrical interview show broadcast on XM Satellite Radio’s Channel 28, “On Broadway.” The Wing also provides grants and scholarships to New York-area theatre companies and theatre students -- and continues its stewardship of the Antoinette Perry “Tony” Awards, the highest honor in Broadway theatre. For more on the Wing, visit
http://www.americantheatrewing.org.
About Proteus
Proteus is a unit of Telitas US, Inc., and as the United States’ leading provider of wireless applications and carrier connectivity to the content community, Proteus enjoys ongoing relationships with all major U.S. wireless carriers. Proteus was the first company in the U.S. to bring wireless applications to the mainstream television audience with FOX Sports’ broadcasts of the NFL’s 2001 NFC championship game and Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002. Additionally, Proteus handled Cingular Virtual Crew Chief (NASCAR on FOX) in 2002, which marked the first usage of two-way SMS interactivity in a U.S. television broadcast. PocketRocket, the company’s proprietary mobile development platform, enables media and content owners to quickly and cost-effectively take advantage of the numerous mobile distribution opportunities available, including SMS, Premium SMS, MMS, WAP, J2ME and BREW.
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