Pay-TV operator BT Sports and the BBC, the UK’s public service broadcaster, have snapped up the domestic rights to the upcoming season-ending finals of the Billie Jean King Cup, the premier women’s national teams competition, in Glasgow.
Under the agreements, struck with tournament organizers the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), BT Sports will air all matches from the 2022 Finals taking place at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena from November 8 to 13.
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The BBC, meanwhile, will broadcast all matches involving Great Britain (GB) on its website and iPlayer streaming service, starting with the tournament’s opening match between GB and Kazakhstan.
The GB team will include Harriet Dart, Katie Bouter, and Heather Watson after former US Open champion Emma Raducanu pulled out with a wrist injury. Two more players will be added to the team before the start of the tournament.
Richard Armstrong, commercial director at BBC Sport, said: “We are delighted to bring extensive coverage of the Billie Jean King Cup to the widest possible UK audience.
“In what has been an incredible year for women’s sport already, we look forward to showing all of GB’s matches and the finals live from Glasgow.”
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By GlobalDataRachel Knight, sports rights director at BT Sport, added: “BT Sport customers are set for two weeks of great tennis in November, starting with the Billie Jean King Cup bringing the likes of Coco Gauff to their screens, followed by the UK Pro League Finals later in the month.”
The Billie Jean King Cup, which was known as the Fed Cup until 2020, is competed by around 100 nations, with 12 going on to the round-robin finals, hosted in a single location.
In June, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) governing body named Glasgow, Scotland, as the host city for this year’s finals – the fourth time Great Britain has hosted the tournament of the annual competition.
The city was awarded hosting rights for the group stage of the Davis Cup, the men’s equivalent competition, in September.
As host, Team GB has automatically been awarded a place at the finals, having not competed at that stage since 1993. It has been placed in Group C of the round-robin stage alongside Kazakhstan and Spain.
Other nations competing include Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, and the USA.
Russia is the current champion of the tournament but under the sanctions on the country currently in place due to its invasion of Ukraine, the team is not able to defend its crown this year.
Last year's Billie Jean King Cup Finals, the first edition of the revamped competition, was held in Prague in the Czech Republic after Budapest pulled out for safety reasons related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Richard Daish, LTA marketing and commercial director, said: “We are delighted that BBC Sport and BT Sport will broadcast the Billie Jean King Cup Finals.
“To have the world’s best players coming to Britain for such a prestigious tournament offers a wonderful platform to promote our sport and maximize visibility.
“Hopefully the images that will be going into homes across the UK will inspire some girls and boys to pick up a racket for the first time.”
In late September, the ITF unveiled US-based Gainbridge Insurance Agency as the new title sponsor of the Billie Jean King Cup in a five-year-deal that will see the finals renamed the Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbrdige Finals from 2023 to 2027.
The life insurance firm replaces multinational bank BNP, which held title sponsorship rights to the competition since 2005.
