Men’s tennis body the Association of Tennis Professionals will launch a tender process next Monday (March 4) for the sale of international media rights to the inaugural ATP Cup, which will take place in January 2020.
The first edition of the annual ATP Cup will be held in Australia from January 3-12 in three cities: Sydney, Brisbane and one to be announced. It will feature 129 matches across its 10 days.
The tournament comprises 24 nations split into six groups of four, with eight teams emerging from the round-robin stage to compete in the knockout phase to find a winner. Each team can have up to five players and ties will be made up of two singles matches and one doubles match.
Bidders will be able to bid for rights packages around their specific broadcast requirements. This means that bids can be single or multi-territory for rights across linear, digital, OTT and VOD.
All deals will be based upon a minimum three-year contract.
ATP Media, the broadcast arm of the ATP Tour, will produce the tournament’s broadcast content in conjunction with Tennis Australia.
ATP Media will also manage the tender process. Any parties interested in bidding must submit a formal application by April 18. ATP Media expects to decide on the winning bid on April 29.
The ATP Cup marks the return of an ATP team competition into the tennis calendar for the first time since the ATP World Team Cup, which was held in Dusseldorf from 1978-2012.
ATP chose Australia as the location of the new tournament to “flow seamlessly” into the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the year.