Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN sports network renewed its contract to air the Wimbledon tennis championships for 12 more years, locking up another big sporting event, reports Bloomberg.
The agreement with the All England Lawn Tennis Club lets the company show weekend matches on the ABC network in the middle of the tournament and air coverage from all of the courts on the ESPN+ streaming service, the company said in a statement Friday. ESPN+ will also have full match replays. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
Disney has continued to expand its sports portfolio, announcing long-term deals this year for professional hockey, baseball and football. The NFL agreement includes two Super Bowls. The company has also been seeking to include viewing options for its streaming businesses in all of the new contracts.
The deal with Wimbledon, one of the four Grand Slam tournaments in tennis, also expands the company’s Latin American rights to include Brazil. Disney is rolling out a streaming service in Latin America that includes sports.
ESPN began airing Wimbledon matches in 2003 and acquired exclusive rights nine years later. Two of the men’s matches, in 2012 and 2019, were the most-watched tennis events in the network’s history, drawing more than 3 million viewers.
No comments:
Post a Comment