Pay-TV heavyweight Sky has agreed deals with both the ATP and WTA, the men's and women's tennis tours, that will see the broadcaster exclusively air more than 80 events per year until 2028.
The five-year deal, beginning in 2024, will see Sky showcase more than 4,000 tennis matches per year exclusively across the UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Sky also holds non-exclusive rights to the two tennis tours in Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and the South Tyrol/Alto Adige province of Italy.
This will include The WTA and ATP tour season-ending finals, as well as all of the coveted WTA and ATP 1000, 500, and 250-tier tournaments.
The broadcasts will be shown on linear Sky Sports television, as well as on its over-the-top (OTT) streaming service NOW TV
The rights to the two tours have returned to the broadcaster for the first time since 2019, with the ATP having been shown by OTT streaming service Prime Video and the WTA broadcast by BT Sport, now known as TNT Sport, in the time since.
Stephen van Rooyen, Sky UK & Ireland and Group chief executive and Sky group chief commercial officer, stated: "We are committed to bringing the two Tours together to elevate both male and female stars, and deliver world-class coverage of the 80 events across 48 weeks of the year; creating a brand-new home for tennis fans."
Sky has been increasing its stake in tennis recently. Last December, it agreed a five-year deal to broadcast the US Open Grand Slam, one of the sport’s four majors, from 2023 through to 2027.
In the UK, Wimbledon is shown by public broadcaster the BBC, and the other two grand slams, Roland-Garros and the Australian Open, are shown by Eurosport, the pan-European sports broadcaster owned by media giant Warner Bros. Discovery.
It marked the return of the iconic tournament to Sky, having last been aired by the broadcaster in 2015, while Prime Video has now all but divested from its coverage of the sport.