International sports broadcaster ESPN has acquired rights in Australia and New Zealand for the ATP World Tour men’s tennis series, according to the Mumbrella media news website.
The deal will run for five years, from 2016 to 2020, and will cover 19 tournaments per year from the tour’s top-tier Masters 1,000 and second-tier 500 series events.
The agreement includes digital rights, with ESPN securing the right to show highlights on its new locally tailored ESPN.com offering, which was launched last week.
ESPN’s director of digital products, Lance Peatey, said: “We carry the same tennis rights in the US so we have all the relevant video being cut there and it can be pushed out to our local edition now as well.”
Yesterday (Wednesday) ESPN extended a rights deal in Spanish-speaking Latin America and the Caribbean for the ATP World Tour, for the same five-year period.