ATP Media wins at International Sports Award  

ATP Media, the broadcast arm of the ATP World Tour, has won the International Sports Award for Sports Media of the Year for areas including the launch of ATP Tennis Radio and rights deals across the ATP World Tour.

The International Sports Awards are voted for by members of the International Sports Chamber of Commerce and participants in the International Sports Convention.  The awards celebrate the finest sports work in the world. 

ATP Media’s winning submission outlined the company’s recent major achievements, highlighting all aspects of the company’s remit: host broadcast and world feed production enhancements, fibre delivery and remote production, virtual reality (VR) testing and application, the re-launch of Tennis TV, the launch of ATP Tennis Radio and rights deals across the ATP World Tour.

With a dedicated fibre network having been installed at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 and 500 tournaments, ATP Media has been able to produce and deliver every single main draw singles and doubles match from the Masters 1000s and every singles match from the 500s.  Where ATP Media is the host broadcaster at the Masters 1000s and Nitto ATP Finals, a bespoke package of ISO feeds were made available to rights holders.

At the 2016 Nitto ATP Finals in London, ATP Media partnered with Sony to deliver an on-site VR experience for fans on the PlayStation VR platform, the first time the PlayStation VR headset was used outside of gaming. Since then ATP Media and Sony have embarked on further testing and successfully delivered live VR pictures off-site from the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. 

ATP Media’s live streaming platform, Tennis TV was re-launched for the 2017 season and saw a 48% rise in subscriptions within the first six months.  Showing over 2,000 live matches annually Tennis TV now offers subscribers over 1,000 hours of classic ATP World Tour matches back to 1990.

This year also saw the launch of ATP Tennis Radio.  Featuring live bespoke radio commentary, on-site reporting, a weekly podcast featuring the best of the week’s action, interviews and features, the platform offers tennis fans a new way to access a rich variety of content, across numerous digital devices. 

The submission also highlighted the first of a series of landmark rights deals with Amazon Prime Video, for the Next Gen ATP Finals, the inaugural men’s 21-and-under showcase, which took place from the 7th-11th November in Milan.

Stuart Watts, COO at ATP Media, said: “This award is a fantastic win for us as it recognizes success and innovation in every area of our business.  ATP Media is a small but dedicated team and we are always looking to add value both for our rights-holders and shareholders. This award is recognition of that work.”