TENNIS: WTA Tour agrees record rights deal worth £335m

The Women's Tennis Association has signed a new record media rights contract that it says will be worth more than £335m ($525m) over 10 years. The deal with Perform runs from 2017 to 2026 with plans to produce every singles match, which is around 2,000 fixtures, for the first time.

Under the existing contract with Perform, only around a third of singles matches are broadcast.
WTA chairwoman Stacey Allastar called the new deal "a game-changer".


She added the deal will "give fans more access to the players they want to watch".

The WTA and Perform are forming WTA Media, which will produce all main-draw matches in singles, along with the semi-finals and finals in doubles at every tour event.

Allaster said that the new deal guarantees annual TV rights fees of £21m ($33m) from Perform, which is nearly double the current agreement of (£11m) ($17m) per year that runs 2013-2016. The deal also includes what Allaster said was "eight figures"' a year in "production investment".

She added: "This comes at a time when we look at the horizon and we will have a changing of the guard of our current top stars, which shows the value and depth of our rising stars."