Sky Sports lose tennis rights to Amazon Prime
AThe US-based digital giant has wrestled the UK rights to the ATP World Tour from Sky, meaning fans wanting to watch Roger Federer and Co regularly must subscribe to Amazon Prime for their online streaming service.
Their exclusive coverage will commence from 2019 after the end of Sky’s current five-year contract — understood to be worth about £8m annually. This will make Amazon the home for non-Grand Slam men’s tennis.
The contract covers the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 and Masters 500 events, including tournaments in Indian Wells, Monte Carlo, Madrid, Miami, Paris and Shanghai. They will also show the ATP World Tour Finals in London.
One industry insider said this is an indication of how deeppocketed digital corporations are now a threat to broadcasters such as Sky Sports and BT Sport.
The Amazon deal comes after Sky dropped their coverage of the US Open in 2016, despite having shown it for 25 years.
There were suggestions at the time that some Sky staff blamed the spiralling cost of the rights to the Premier League for the axing of the last Grand Slam of the tennis season.
Sky pay £11m per Premier League match and their chief executive, Jeremy Darroch, admitted last week they had ‘walked away’ from bidding for some sporting events. Now tennis fans may be required to rethink their subscriptions. As well as the minimum £5.99 subscription for Amazon Prime, you can pay £6.99 a month for Eurosport, which holds the rights to all four Grand Slams. Both Sky and Amazon declined to comment.
Meanwhile, Maria Sharapova defeated Jennifer Brady yesterday in her first match in the US for over two years.
Five-time Grand Slam champion Sharapova, who returned in April following a 15-month doping ban, has been sidelined with a thigh issue since May.
The 30-year- old, now ranked 171 in the world, won 6-1, 4-6, 6-0 at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford.
She said: ‘I feel like I just want to hug everyone and say thank you. It’s my first match in the States in a really long time, and it’s the closest thing to home for me. The welcome has been incredible.’ MAZON have beaten Sky Sports by securing a £10million-a-year deal to broadcast tennis’s top men’s tournaments outside of the Grand Slams.