An invitation to tender has been issued for broadcast rights in Brazil to ATP Tour events, and also the French Open, one of tennis’ four grand slam events.
The rights on offer will run from 2021 to 2023 and broadcasters have been asked to lodge their proposals by the end of October.
ATP Media, the broadcast production and sales arm of the men’s ATP Tour, sells its worldwide broadcast rights in conjunction with IMG. The agency also brokers media-rights deals in Brazil on behalf of the French Tennis Federation (FFT).
Bandeirantes, the Brazilian media group with free-to-air and pay-TV channels, holds ATP Tour and French Open broadcast rights during the current cycle from 2018 to 2020.
The Brazilian broadcaster currently holds rights to ATP World Tour 500 events, the ATP World Tour 250 tournaments distributed by IMG and the Next Gen ATP Finals. The Rio Open was excluded from the list of 500 events secured by Bandeirantes given the organisers sell the domestic broadcast rights themselves.
Brazilian media group Globo holds the rights to the top-tier ATP World Tour 1000 tournaments and the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals in a deal that expires in 2020.
Bandeirantes has showcased its coverage from Roland Garros on its pay-TV channel BandSports. Ahead of this year’s tournament, the FFT entered into a partnership with telecoms group Vivo to provide an OTT service for Brazilian viewers. A dedicated website and app were launched and Brazilian viewers were charged R$29.99 (€6.63/$7.33) for a tournament pass.
