ATP World Tour teams up with iQIYI.com in China

Chinese online video platform iQIYI.com has sealed a rights deal for tournaments on the ATP World Tour men’s tennis series.

The exclusive agreement will cover mainland China from 2017 to 2020.

Coverage will be available on PCs, mobiles and internet-connected televisions.

More than 3,000 hours of men’s tennis per year will be shown through the deal, which was agreed with ATP Media, the commercial arm of the tour.

The rights cover nine top-tier Masters tournaments, 13 ATP 500 competitions, the end-of-season ATP World Tour Finals and ATP 250 events. A weekly magazine programme will also be shown by iQIYI.com.

In 2015 Le Sports sealed a rights deal covering 2016 to 2020, but the agreement, worth $20m (€17.2m) per year, was curtailed due to financial problems at the media company.

The iQIYI.com platform is operated by media company Baidu.