Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), the media and entertainment giant, will continue its coverage of the top-tier men’s ATP tennis tour in France by renewing its rights deal for another three years.
The deal, which will start in 2024 and run through 2026, was struck with ATP Media, the media arm of the ATP Tour, and will see WBD air ATP Tour events on its Eurosport pan-European sports broadcaster.
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This will include nine top-tier Masters 1000 events, as well as 13 second-tier ATP 500 and 33 third-tier ATP 250 tournaments. The package also includes domestic rights to Master 1000 tournaments in Monte-Carlo and Paris, as well as the season-ending ATP Finals.
As part of the agreement, rights to the Monte-Carlo and Paris Masters will be sub-licensed to a free-to-air (FTA) broadcaster and shown simultaneously with Eurosport. Those FTA rights were held by pay-TV giant Canal Plus, which provided coverage on its free C8 channel, during the previous cycle.
Trojan Paillot, WBD Europe’s senior vice president of sports rights acquisitions and syndication, said: “Eurosport has a proud tennis heritage and has showcased some of the biggest tournaments in the sport for many years.
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“We are pleased … to bring coverage of the ATP Tour’s events to the widest possible audience and to prolong our year-round storytelling from this incredible sport and its players competing.”
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By GlobalDataThe deal builds on WBD’s previous contract with the ATP covering the 2019 to 2023 cycle, worth €11 million ($11.8 million) per year. Eurosport also holds rights to the US Open and Australian Open grand slams in France and will also show all tennis events during the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
International pay-TV operator BeIN Sports has rights to the women’s WTA Tour in the country until 2026. It also previously held rights to the Wimbledon Grand Slam but is renegotiating its contract with the tournament after it expired after the 2023 edition.
Public service broadcaster France TV and streaming heavyweight Amazon Prime Video hold the domestic rights to the French Open grand slam after renewing their agreements in March covering the 2024 to 2027 editions.
ATP chief executive Mark Webster said: “With the very many innovations and continued desire for excellence in tennis TV production that ATP Media stands for, having a partner like Eurosport that also holds such high standards and values is important for our sport and so we look forward to the next three years working together.”
ATP Media’s new deal with WBD comes after it inked a long-term production partnership with UK-based live broadcast facilities provider Gravity Media to deliver global coverage of its tournaments covering 60 ATP tournaments, including the top-tier ATP Masters 1000s, second-tier ATP 500s, and third-tier ATP 250s, as well as the ATP Finals.
The company also partnered with Israel-based sports video content provider WSC Sports to support its content creation and digital strategy, in February.
