Revenues at ATP Media, the ATP Tour’s international media rights sales and broadcast production arm, rose by 6.7 per cent to $121m (€108m) in 2018.
ATP Media Holdings Limited also reported $13.6m in gross profit, a 9.6-per-cent annual uplift, according to the annual report and group financial statements lodged with Companies House.
Controlled production and distribution costs within the cost of sales helped ATP Media to deliver the gross profit uplift.
Pre-tax profits totalled $4.47m in 2018, compared to $4.26m in 2017, while administrative expenses rose to $9.1m (from $8.4m).
Live broadcast rights sales remained the chief revenue stream, supplemented by the sale of subscriptions to the ATP Tennis TV streaming service, revenues from ATP Tennis Radio and archive rights sales. ATP Media distributes its worldwide broadcast rights in conjunction with the IMG agency.
Divided up by geography, the UK generated $11.6m of ATP Media’s revenues in 2018, behind Europe with $31.9m and the rest of the world with $77.5m.
New broadcast rights deals that kicked in this year or will do so in 2020 look set to further bolster the revenues generated by ATP Media.
An improved five-year deal in the UK and Ireland with retail giant Amazon began this year and runs until 2023. New deals with the Discovery-owned sports broadcaster Eurosport took effect this year in Russia and France. Meanwhile, Eurosport’s new four-year agreement in the Nordic countries will begin in 2020.
In addition, IMG has been in the final stages of negotiation over a 10-year, $1bn betting streaming and data rights deal that would deliver a huge financial boost to the ATP Tour.
New rights inventory also comes into play next year as the inaugural ATP Cup, an international teams competition, takes place in January 2020. In March, ATP Media issued an international media rights tender for the tournament.
Last week, ATP Media, the French Tennis Federation and IMG initiated an invitation to tender process for broadcast rights in Brazil to the centralised ATP Tour events and the French Open, as reported by SportBusiness.