ESPN and MasterCard Worldwide are “joining forces for an extensive branded-entertainment project that is centered on soccer,” according to Stuart Elliott of the N.Y. TIMES. The partnership calls for four weekly episodes of a new series, “Capitales del Futbol,” or “Capitals of Football,” to be “shown across Latin America on four consecutive Sundays,” with the first airing yesterday. The series is “shown at the same time in 18 countries that speak Spanish as well as in Portuguese-speaking Brazil.” ESPN said that this is the "first simultaneous premiere of its type.” ESPN, production company 100 Bares and two MasterCard agencies -- McCann Erickson Worldwide and Universal McCann -- are developing the series, “a documentary-style look at four premier soccer cities: Buenos Aires, Madrid, Milan and Rio de Janeiro.” MasterCard branding is “interspersed in each episode,” and its commercials “will appear during each episode.” There are also microsites “devoted to the series, hosted by ESPN Deportes and billed as ‘presented by MasterCard’” (
NYTIMES.com, 4/15).
