Amazon Sets Sights On ATP World Tour

01 Aug 2017 | tshego

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Amazon has strengthened its move into live sport by securing the UK rights to tennis’ ATP World Tour for the next five years, according to media reports.

Sky and the BBC have previously shared coverage of the ATP World Tour, with the existing deal ending in 2018.

The new deal, which represents Amazon’s first major live sports rights deal outside the US, means there will be no elite tennis on Sky Sports since the launch of the channel in 1991, who reportedly paid around £8m a year in the last cycle.

Amazon has now reportedly moved in ahead of its rivals with a bid of around £10m per year for the next cycle of rights, which includes ATP World Tour Masters 1000 and Masters 500 events.

The deal will make Amazon Prime Video the home for the majority of all top-flight men’s tennis, other than the four grand slam tournaments, including the end of year ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena in London.

For Amazon, it is the second major live TV sports rights deal in the last few months following its agreement with the National Football League to stream ten Thursday night American football games in the US this season, alongside broadcasters NBC and CBS.

Amazon has been increasing the sport-focused content on its service in recent months. In May, it added 40 streaming TV channels in the UK, including Eurosport, which will enable it to offer the US Open tennis and French Open tennis.

Amazon also has the rights to live audio-streaming for Bundesliga football commentaries in Germany, available through its Amazon Music service.