The Women's Tennis Association and digital sports media company Perform have named the senior management team for their broadcast production and distribution media partnership, WTA Media.
John Learing will serve as managing director, and Bruno Rocha, executive vice-president, of the unit, which launched on April 1.
The creation of WTA Media is the first step in the developing partnership between the two organisations since they agreed on the largest media deal in the history of women’s sports in December. The live media rights and production deal is worth $525m (€496.2m) over 10 years, from 2017 to 2026.
Under the deal, all WTA tournaments are being aggregated, centralised and delivered, under one media rights owner for the first time. It also means that, from 2017, all main draw singles matches (over 2,000), plus doubles semifinals and finals will be broadcast.
WTA Media will increase news content by 40 percent, and deliver magazine shows and significant additional off-court content. Distribution of the content to broadcasters, news providers and other digital outlets will be handled directly by WTA Media with support from Perform’s 41 offices around the world.
Learing (pictured) brings over 20 years of experience in the sports and entertainment production business, having previously held positions at ESPN, golf’s PGA Tour and, currently, the WTA.
Rocha, Perform’s current senior vice-president of distribution and client services in North America, oversees the content distribution side of the business. He will be re-locating from New York to Perform’s headquarters in London to take up the new role.
Perform chief executive Simon Denyer said: “Following a decision to keep all WTA Media sales in-house, we are pleased to announce the appointment of John and Bruno. Conversations have already started with major broadcast groups in key regions and, with the support of our staff and offices around the world, we look forward to delivering this great content to the WTA's global fan base in conjunction with a whole host of existing and new partners.”