Tennis Channel Renews Telecast Rights Agreement With ATP World Tour
Tennis Channel has renewed its telecast rights agreement with the ATP World Tour, the governing body in men’s tennis, which will keep the tour’s most prominent events on the network through 2015. Paramount among the 19 tournaments included in the deal are the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals and high-profile ATP World Tour Masters 1000 competitions in Miami and Indian Wells, Calif. The latter are among the most popular events in professional tennis, annually competed in by virtually every one of the game’s greats.
The other seven ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments will also remain on Tennis Channel, which will continue to provide more live men’s tennis coverage per year than all other U.S. broadcasters combined. Under the new arrangement, the network will actually expand the amount of live time it dedicates to ATP World Tour events throughout the year, adding a projected 30 additional hours in 2011 for more than 600 overall.
"We’re thrilled to extend the great relationship we have with the ATP World Tour, which has made its home on Tennis Channel since our beginning," said David Scott, vice president, programming, Tennis Channel. "Tennis Channel viewers will continue to watch the season-long journey of stars like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick week after week, all year long on our network."
The ATP World Tour categorizes tournaments according to the number of points that they award to their champions. Of the 19 events in Tennis Channel’s telecast rights renewal, the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals offers the most points to its winner, 1,500 overall. All nine ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events (each offering 1,000 points) are included in the deal: BNP Paribas Open (Indian Wells, Calif.), Sony Ericsson Open (Miami), Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters (Monaco), Internazionali BNL d’Italia (Rome), Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open (Madrid, Spain), Rogers Cup (Toronto), Western & Southern Financial Group Masters (Cincinnati), Shanghai Rolex Masters (Shanghai, China) and BNP Paribas Masters (Paris).
The other nine tournaments in the rights agreement are 500-level events. These are: ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament (Rotterdam, Netherlands), Abierto Mexicano Telcel (Acapulco, Mexico), Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships (Dubai, United Arab Emirates), Barcelona Open BancSabadell (Barcelona, Spain), German Open Tennis Championships (Hamburg, Germany), China Open (Beijing), Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships (Tokyo), Swiss Indoors Basel (Basel, Switzerland) and Valencia Open 500 (Valencia, Spain).
Coverage of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., and the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami is a significant component of the telecast rights extension. Each of the March competitions has been called "The Fifth Slam" within the industry, and both feature tournament fields surpassed in size only by Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, French Open and Australian Open. Tennis Channel will offer the most live television coverage of each, with 75 hours in Indian Wells and 56 hours in Miami. Depending on the event, matches range from early rounds to semifinals, while both doubles finals will air live on the network. The channel will also present encore coverage of these matches and later-round semifinal and championship play. In all, Tennis Channel will present viewers with more than 300 hours of Indian Wells and Miami matches next spring.
A final new piece of Tennis Channel’s agreement involves expanded court options during ATP World Tour Masters 1000 coverage. Traditionally, Tennis Channel’s overseas ATP World Tour Masters 1000 telecasts have featured a single court as provided by the ATP’s world feed. Beginning in 2011, the network will have the option of three courts per international Masters 1000 event, and will be able to follow the action back and forth between each in order to give viewers the most exciting live play of the moment.
For more information, visit www.tennischannel.com.
