Sports broadcaster Eurosport has today confirmed it has agreed a five-year deal to show ATP tennis events in France, from 2019 to 2023.
The deal was first reported earlier this month. The deal will cover 37 ATP World Tour tournaments per year: the season-ending ATP Finals; the Next Gen ATP Finals; all nine ATP Masters 1000 events per year; all 13 ATP Masters 500 events per year; and 13 ATP 250 tournaments per year. As part of the deal, Eurosport France will show the ATP’s magazine show, ATP Uncovered.
ATP tennis rights in France are currently held by pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports in a five-year deal, from 2014 to 2018. The ATP is advised on the sale of its media rights by the IMG agency.
The current beIN deal excludes rights to the Paris Masters and the Monte-Carlo Masters: rights to these events over the same four years are held by pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus. Rights to both events were sold directly by the tournament organisers.
Eurosport’s ATP deal positions the broadcaster as the home of men’s tennis in France. Eurosport also holds rights in France to the Australian Open, the US Open and the French Open (via a sublicensing agreement with public-service broadcaster France Télévisions).
The ATP deal will strengthen Eurosport’s position ahead of upcoming carriage negotiations with Canal Plus: Eurosport is carried exclusively on Canal Plus’ pay-television platform. Eurosport last month lost its hold on MotoGP rights from 2019 to Canal Plus.