ATP Strikes Deal with Amazon

LONDON—Tennis fans in the U.K. and Republic of Ireland who are Amazon Prime members will be able to watch ATP World Tour events live and on-demand beginning in 2019, according to an announcement from ATP and ATP Media.

The deal with Amazon Prime Video includes the rights to 37 ATP World Tour Events through 2022. A separate deal provides for the availability of Tennis TV on Amazon Channels in the United States.

Aside from Tennis TV, Amazon has secured exclusive rights to all ATP World Tour Masters 1000s, 12 of each of the 500s and 250s and the Next Gen ATP Finals. Amazon will also be ATP’s exclusive third-party pay-TV partner for the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals at The O2 in London, the Queen’s Club Championships and the Eastbourne International.

As relates to the Queen’s Club Championships and the Eastbourne International, the deal begins in 2018, according to the announcement.

Subscribers also can access completed matches, highlights, tournament review shows, press conferences and additional original content on demand.

Amazon and ATP Media also have reached an agreement to distribute Tennis TV, ATP Media’s direct-to-consumer streaming service, to Prime members in the United States beginning next year on a non-exclusive basis.

The deal will bring more than 2,000 live matches from the ATP World Tour as well as on-demand content to Prime members via Amazon Channels.

“Our agreement with Amazon allows us to open up a digital space that is only becoming increasingly important in the world of sport and entertainment,” said Chris Kermode, ATP executive chairman and president in the press release.

Phil Kurz

Phil Kurz is a contributing editor to TV Tech. He has written about TV and video technology for more than 30 years and served as editor of three leading industry magazines. He earned a Bachelor of Journalism and a Master’s Degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism.