Who’ll serve up Auckland’s star-studded tennis fest?
COUCH-BOUND tennis fans wanting to know how they can enjoy January’s fortnight-long ASB Classic festival will have to wait until Tennis Auckland serves up an answer as to which broadcaster has won the rights to screen the sport.
According to an article by David Long on Stuff today, tournament director Nicolas Lamperin, who is part of Tennis Auckland’s negotiation team, has been in talks with a number of broadcasters about the rights to one of the country’s biggest international sporting events after Sky TV’s most recent contract expired.
‘‘For many years Sky TV was the only show in town when it came to sports coverage in New Zealand, so it could determine itself how much it wanted to pay or charge sports organisations for coverage,’’ Long writes. ‘‘But the emergence of Spark Sport changed the landscape and has already shown plenty of interest in tennis. Spark Sport has held the rights to the WTA since 2019 and recently locked up the US Open on a three-year-deal.’’
The tournaments are looking to bounce back after doublefaulting the past two years because of Covid and have already secured a big name – US youngster Coco Gauff – to the event, which serves as the perfect preparation for the first major of the year, the Aussie Open. More big names would likely up the bidding war to broadcast the event. Lamperin won’t confirm which media organisations he’s in discussions with, but it’s likely to be a battle between Sky TV and Spark, with TVNZ and TV3 also at the table, offering free-to-air coverage.
‘‘It’s still being negotiated,’’ Lamperin said. ‘‘It’s very much in discussions at the moment, we have a few options and we’re trying to get some clarity for next year. Ideally if there was a combination of free-to-air and pay-TV it would work out very well. But it’s some of the things we need to discuss with the channels.’’