Media and entertainment giant Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has secured rights to the French Open tennis grand slam in the US for the next 10 years in a lucrative deal.
The agreement will begin in 2025 and is worth $650 million, according to the Athletic.
The tournament, held at Roland Garros in Paris, will air on WBD’s linear TNT, TBS, and truTV networks, Max streaming service, and its Bleacher Report digital sports hub.
WBD will replace Comcast-owned US national network NBC, its Peacock OTT platform, and the Tennis Channel.
NBC Sports, which first covered Roland Garros live in 1975, held multi-platform rights to the grand slam until this year’s edition that ended yesterday, in a long-term deal struck in 2012.
Aside from when the CBS network showed the grand slam for three years, NBC has televised the French Open every year since 1983.
ESPN is the dominant tennis broadcaster in the US as it shows the three other grand slams – the Australian Open, Wimbledon in the UK, and the US Open.
As Max looks to charge a premium price for its sports content and take part in Venu, a planned streaming joint venture with Fox and Disney, the French Open adds another major property to its portfolio.
The deal enhances WBD’s global coverage of the French Open as it already owns the European rights to the tournament through its Eurosport pay-TV broadcaster.
WBD also recently retained exclusive rights to Wimbledon in 11 European markets until 2027.
The French Open agreement follows WBD’s five-year sub-licensing deal with Disney’s ESPN to broadcast college American football’s annual playoff games.
In a busy negotiating period for WBD, the media heavyweight is still locked in talks with basketball’s NBA over a deal to retain a package of rights when its current contract expires at the end of the 2024-25 season.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported, however, that the NBA is closing in on domestic rights deals with NBC, Amazon, and Disney that could be worth $76 billion over 11 years.
WBD is in discussions with the league to acquire a fourth package of games potentially.
