BT Sport has signed a four-year deal with the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) to screen 800 hours of tennis a year in the first in a host of new deals that will form part of its live sports portfolio from the summer.
The telecoms giant’s fledgling sports channel will show live matches from 21 WTA tournaments across the globe, including the season-ending showpiece, the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships.
With BT’s new sports channels set to launch in July, the remainder of the 2013 WTA season from then will be broadcast jointly by BT and previous rights-holder British Eurosport, with BT taking over exclusive rights from 2014 onwards.
The new BT Sport deal includes the five premier WTA tournaments held throughout the year at Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Beijing and Istanbul.
BT has chosen to invest in women’s tennis as it seeks to widen the appeal of its new sports channels, which will launch this summer.
The announcement coincides with an upturn in fortunes for British women’s tennis, with two British players, Laura Robson and Heather Watson, both ranked in the world’s top 50 for the first time since July 1987.
It hopes to capitalise on the increased appeal and recent success of young British players Heather Watson and Laura Robson on the back of results that have catapulted them into the world’s top 50 for the first time.
Watson became the first British woman since 1988 to win a WTA title when she triumphed in the HP Japan Women’s Open in Osaka last October.
The following month, Robson, who won Olympic silver at the London 2012 mixed doubles alongside Andy Murray, was voted the WTA Newcomer of the Year for 2012.
The emerging British pair will come up against the world’s top players as current world number one Victoria Azarenka battle with challengers, including Maria Sharapova and the Williams sisters, to retain her top WTA ranking.
BT Sport takes over the rights to screen WTA tournaments from long-standing current rights holder British Eurosport.
The pan-European broadcaster will continue to screen WTA events during 2013, sharing rights to selected events with BT Sport from the channel’s expected launch in July.
Simon Green, head of BT Sport, said the WTA deal would be the first of several to try to give more exposure to women’s sport after the London Olympics was seen as something of a watershed in raising the profile of female athletes.
“This is our first women’s sport for the channels and we see a genuine opportunity to really develop the exposure for women’s sport with our new channels,” he said.
“We are focusing on several more women’s sports and we hope to be able to announce more rights soon.
“Women’s tennis is the highest profile women’s sport, attracting a global audience of 185 million viewers.
“It’s a good moment for the British women, with Laura and Heather starting to challenge for honours.
“We want to follow their story over the next few years, as well as showcasing the world’s best players in the tournaments that help determine their world rankings.”
Stacey Allaster, WTA chairman and CEO, said: “The UK has long been a fantastic market for women’s tennis, with some of the very best and most knowledgeable fans in the world.
“Along with BT Sport, we look forward to bringing the best in women’s tennis, including Britain’s rising stars Laura Robson and Heather Watson, to the fans of Great Britain.”
BT has chosen iCITY, the former International Broadcast Centre at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, as the home of its BT Sport channels.
It is expected to launch two new sports channels in July, from which it will show 38 live games a season from the Barclays Premier League, including 18 of the top clashes, for three seasons from 2013/14.
BT replaces ESPN as the secondary live Premier League broadcaster after BSkyB, and it is believed that the telecoms giant will also contend for Champions League and England matches, and could even buy out the final years of ESPN’s FA Cup deal.
The channels will also show 69 live rugby union games a season from the Aviva Premiership.
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This sucks, I don`t have BT, Much prefer Eurosport, i assume they will have only one sports channel. sooner it reverts back to Eurosport the better (4 years) :(
I think BT have done a deal to broadcast. Eurosport as well. So with BT Vision you will get footie, tennis,rugby eurosport and even sky sports if you want it. Sounds like a winner to me.
All in HD?