The International Tennis Federation has announced the ongoing finals of this year’s Billie Jean King Cup, the premier women’s national teams competition, are being broadcast in a record 196 territories.
The tournament’s latter stage is currently taking place in Glasgow, Scotland, and involves 12 teams competing for the title – Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Italy, Kazakhstan, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, and the USA.
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It started on Tuesday (November) 8 and will culminate in a final on Sunday (November 13).
The global governing body said the list of broadcast markets includes live free-to-air terrestrial coverage in eight out of the 12 participating nations, with livestreamed coverage in more than 30 additional territories via Meta’s social media platform Facebook and the Billie Jean King Cup streaming platform.
The total 196 territories mark the widest broadcast distribution for the tournament in its 59-year history.
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Earlier this month, pay-TV operator BT Sports and the BBC, the UK’s public service broadcaster, snapped up domestic rights to the tournament in a deal struck with tournament organizers the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA).
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By GlobalDataRights to the tournament have been sold by UK-based sports marketing agency Pitch International through a distribution partnership agreement with the ITF.
Broadcast production of this year’s edition is being led by Gravity Media, the UK-based provider of live broadcast facilities and production services, which is operating 21 cameras across the two courts, including specialty and net cameras.
The tournament is also working with a new content distribution partner in Cingularity, a live video networking and productions solutions specialist, which is hosting a hybrid solution of satellite and IP distribution workflows to service the event’s broadcasters across 100 hours of live content.
Tim Stemp, ITF executive director of commercial, said: “We are thrilled to be delivering coverage of the 2022 Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge Finals in more markets than ever before.
“As we continue to support the development and growth of the sport from the playground to podium, as part of our Advantage All program, we want to ensure that this historic event, and coverage of tennis in general, is reaching the widest possible audience.”
The Billie Jean King Cup, which was known as the Fed Cup until 2020, is contested 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.
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.
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.
Image: Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge
