PlayStation Signs Multiyear Deal To Become Title Sponsor Of Fiesta Bowl

Sony's PlayStation will be the Fiesta Bowl’s new title sponsor as part of a multiyear agreement. Within the CFP's bowl rotation, the Arizona-based event is one of the semifinals this season on New Year's Eve, along with the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. ESPN, the CFP's media and marketing rightsholder, sold the deal to PlayStation. No terms were available. The entitlement ends a series of one-year deals since the CFP started. Tostitos exited the entitlement after the '13-14 bowl season following an 18-year run, leading to Vizio for the '14-15 season and BattleFrog for '15-16. The category-exclusive deal makes PlayStation the official gaming and VR sponsor of the CFP. ESPN said it will collaborate with PlayStation on multimedia content across ESPN programming, featuring the PlayStation brand messaging "Greatness Awaits." ESPN also said that the TV and digital deal is part of a broader agreement that includes other ESPN programming throughout the year. ESPN’s ad sales team worked with Mediacom, who made the buy for PlayStation. PlayStation has dabbled previously in a bowl entitlement deal -- it was the presenting sponsor of the '03 Rose Bowl.

GAME ON: While it has not had its name on many games, PlayStation has long had a strong presence around bowls, including being used by a number of bowl committees as part of gift packages given to participating players. The gaming console is used both as an item in a gift suite, where players are able to choose gifts from a large selection of items, or as a stand-alone gift, such as when the '13 Military Bowl was able to secure more than 250 of that season’s hottest item -- the PS4 -- for players from Maryland and Marshall. Sony helped pioneer the gift suite packages for bowl games beginning in '08, and in '09, there were 11 bowl game gift suites filled exclusively with Sony products. The company was involved in around 24 gift suites last bowl season.