ATP Media, the media arm of the men’s professional tennis tour, has inked a long-term production partnership with UK-based live broadcast facilities provider Gravity Media to deliver global coverage of its tournaments.
The deal covers over 60 ATP tournaments, including the top-tier ATP Masters 1000s, second-tier ATP 500s, and third-tier ATP 250s, as well as the season-ending ATP Finals.
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It will see Gravity Media provide ATP Media with production and sound control rooms at its newly opened media hub, more on-court and off-court cameras, and a new outside broadcast truck to support ATP Media’s move towards fully remote production.
The first tournament that will be produced under the new partnership will begin in London in June.
ATP Media chief executive Mark Webster said: “Gravity Media has been an important strategic partner for ATP Media over an extended period of time, and so when Gravity Media stepped up to the plate with its bid under our very detailed and transparent tender process, we were naturally delighted.
"ATP Media has been acutely aware that, to ensure it continues to be at the forefront of live and non-live sports content production, it needs to continually re-invest in its production capabilities.
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By GlobalData"With the unfortunate Covid-19 pandemic, such re-investment naturally had to be put on hold, but the tender process addressed that and this innovative and wide-ranging deal with Gravity Media, an organization ATP Media has implicitly trusted for many years, will now turbo-charge our production and take ATP Tour tennis to the next level for its fans.”
ATP Media said it has worked closely with Gravity Media on the specifications of its new rooms and working areas for ATP Media Studios, which is situated within Gravity Media’s media campus in London’s White City, which was launched last year.
The ATP Media Studios will feature two production and sound control rooms for the ATP Masters 1000 tournaments, two medium production and sound rooms for the ATP 500s, and an area to produce the 38 ATP 250 events. It will also contain several flexible control rooms, six edit suites six voiceover booths, and a vision control room, as well as office space, a broadcast operations center, and media management facilities.
As part of the partnership, Gravity Media will also build a bespoke broadcast truck which will be integrated with ATP Media Studios, ensuring the migration of broadcast feeds from onsite to the production center.
The truck will begin with remote world feed management through to remoting replay operators, vision control, and media management before scaling to fully remote court production in the future.
Additionally, ATP Media will introduce new camera positions and increase the number of on-court and off-court cameras, with the on-court cameras gaining access to Gravity Media’s technologies designed to enhance the viewer experience. Further technology upgrades will be rolled out as the partnership progresses.
John Newton, Gravity Media’s chief executive and founder, said: “It is an extremely proud moment for me and the wider team, as we announce our long-term production partnership, delivering ATP Media’s global broadcast and creative technology innovation solutions-building on an already long-standing relationship.
“Ensuring we will deliver the most advanced remote broadcast solutions across the ATP Media assets as well as from our brand-new media hub, Production Centre London means we are poised to lead the way in the future of tennis broadcasts.
“This contract will ensure the most environmentally sustainable approaches are embraced, whilst ensuring we can provide more roles to the broadcast industry welcoming and encouraging a new generation of talent to come on board with both Gravity Media and ATP Media.”
In January, Gravity Media entered into a remote-broadcast production partner with video game developer Riot Games to provide managed services first at the remote broadcast center Riot Games operates in Dublin.
ATP Media, meanwhile, partnered with Israel-based sports video content provider WSC Sports to support its content creation and digital strategy in February.
