Play Sports, the Belgian pay-TV sports network owned by telecommunications firm Telenet, has announced the multi-year renewal of its broadcast partnership with tennis’ Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).
The renewed partnership will see Play Sports continue to broadcast the WTA Tour and ATP Tour’s top-ranked Masters 1000 events live across its selection of platforms through 2026.
This includes showpiece competitions such as the Madrid Masters, alongside select ATP and WTA 500 series matches.
In all, the broadcaster has committed to showcase over 1,000 hours of tennis between the two tours each year for the three-year extension.
Vincent Stevens, vice president of premium entertainment at Telenet, stated of the deal: “We are proud to announce the extension of the WTA and ATP tennis offer in the broadest sports package in Belgium.
“This [extension] gives our Play Sports customers a complete offer, ranging from soccer to motorsports, cyclocross and golf. We look forward to seeing our rising Belgian talent achieve great results on the WTA and ATP tennis tours.”
ATP Media's chief commercial officer, Gabrielle Guedj, added: “We are delighted to be able to extend our partnership with Play Sports. Tennis is in a really exciting time with a host of new superstars coming to the fore and so ensuring that their story can be told from our many fantastic tournaments via a partner like Play Sports who share many of our same values is very important to us.”
Both of the tennis tours have been securing new rights deals and partnerships over the previous months. In November 202023, both the WTA and ATP agreed to a new pan-European broadcast deal with pay-TV heavyweight Sky Sports.
The five-year deal, beginning in 2024, entails Sky showcasing 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.
The broadcasts will be shown on linear Sky Sports television, as well as on its over-the-top (OTT) streaming service NOW TV.
