When Alex Zverev defeated Novak Djokovic to secure the Nitto ATP Finals it brought to a fitting end a season that has seen a number of new stars enter the fray alongside the enduring greats of men’s tennis.
It was, perhaps, a fitting metaphor for Tennis TV, the ATP Tour’s over the-top (OTT) live and on-demand subscription streaming service. Since ATP Media – the ATP’s broadcast arm – announced a major revamp of the platform in 2016, the product has risen in its popularity.
The decision was taken to split from women’s tennis’ WTA tour, focusing Tennis TV solely on the men’s game.
Up to 2,000 games are available on the platform each year, with 64 ATP tournaments coming together in the unique package.
While the platform does not hold the digital rights to the sport’s four Grand Slams – the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open, a wide array of non-live programming such as on-demand replays, highlights, features and classic matches has given the product a range of content offerings to a loyal fanbase.
Earlier in 2018, the Rivalries series was launched, providing footage of clashes between some of the sport’s biggest ever names.
Ahead of the SportsPro OTT Summit in Madrid, ATP Media digital product director Andrew Hall spoke to SportsPro about Tennis TV’s potential to grow the sport through further innovation, the importance of non-live content and a decreasing reliance on the sport’s iconic stars.
Tennis TV was relaunched at the beginning of 2017, solely broadcasting men's tennis, with coverage of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) shown separately
What is the key to building a successful far-reaching OTT platform?
Get the streaming, the registration and payment right. Additional features are certainly ‘nice-to-have’ but ultimately the product is judged primarily on the content and the viewing experience.
What are the biggest challenges you have faced over the years in the creation and development of Tennis TV into what it is today?
Doing a complete migration from Perform to Deltatre at the end of 2016 was a considerable challenge. At that point we also parted company with the WTA, becoming an ATP-only product and so we had to manage that with our subscribers.
Completely reinventing the ecosystem and taking on the direct running and management of key elements ourselves such as payments and customer service proved to be challenge.
What trends have you seen in terms of content consumption on the platform?
We are seeing increasing use of streaming boxes and gaming platforms as entertainment hubs. Mobile usage is important for certain use-cases but people still prefer bigger screens for their long-form sports viewing experience.
Tablets are important devices for us. Replays are a significant part of the product mix – Tennis TV now has more that 10,000 hours of on-demand content. Overall users now expect a TV experience whatever device they’re on and so it’s probably no surprise that viewers are happy to sit on a day-long TV-style feed.
How much has the availability of highlights, features, classic matches and on-demand replays influenced the service? How crucial is that non-live element in the grand scheme of the Tennis TV product?
Non-live now accounts for between 25 per cent and 50 per cent of minutes consumed. The importance of Tennis TV as an on-demand catch-up service can’t be underestimated. With tournaments and subscribers all around the world, there will always be fans who can’t watch because of the time-zone. So delivering every match as a full-replay, and having that available for as long as you’re subscribed is a great benefit that our subscribers really appreciate.
Additionally, our classic match archive presents the matches as they were broadcast at the time – when we surveyed our audience, seeing these matches in full was a surprisingly popular request, so that’s what we did.
So we have Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal making their ATP World Tour debuts, and a wealth of matches going back to the 1990s featuring Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Boris Becker and Michael Chang. These matches are all taken from the ATP Archive – a B2B platform that is also available to broadcasters.
The OTT product features live coverage of 64 ATP Tour tournaments, but does not hold the rights to any of the sport's four Grand Slam events
How reliant is Tennis TV on the sport’s top players, given that the service does not have the rights to the Grand Slams?
Tennis TV certainly benefits from a boost when Federer or Nadal is playing. However with 64 tournaments the ATP Tour is a fantastic year-round story. There is always a competitive field at the nine ATP Masters 1000s in particular and the top players feature during these events as they build their ranking points.
There are some great players just outside the mainstream who move the needle for certain territories – Kei Nishikori in Japan, Dominic Thiem in Austria, Hyeon Chung in South Korea – as well as new stars always emerging.
We’ve seen a boost this year in Greece with the emergence of Stefanos Tsitsipas who won the Next Gen Finals in Milan recently. He’ll be a big star for us in the coming years.
The ATP Tour has a clear objective to build the profiles and tell the stories of the new generation of players – they’re the future of the sport and of the Tennis TV product.
What have you found in terms of the uptake to an OTT service across different generations? How do you look to bring people, who have traditionally been used to consuming their content through linear channels, into the digital landscape?
Tennis TV has a number of older users, and we never underestimate the desire or ability of older users to access our service. The simplicity of being able to get the sport you love on your chosen devices through a specialist OTT channel – and uninterrupted by ads – really plays to the older audience.
At the other end of the age spectrum, our youngest users demonstrate the greatest willingness to choose an OTT product – in combination with social media – as their primary means of consuming the sport. Tennis TV’s social media strategy works hand-in-hand with our OTT product to target younger fans.
How do you look to develop Tennis TV from here from an innovation perspective?
We always keep an open mind about cutting-edge technology features like augmented reality (AR), but our focus at present is on delivering an even better experience for users, and on working with major broadcaster licensees in key territories to build on the success of Tennis TV and integrate our product with their own OTT efforts.
The next phase of Tennis TV’s development is as a complementary product for broadcasters that can be localised and serve large numbers of tennis fans within their own subscription base.
When Alex Zverev defeated Novak Djokovic to secure the Nitto ATP Finals it brought to a fitting end a season that has seen a number of new stars enter the fray alongside the enduring greats of men’s tennis.
It was, perhaps, a fitting metaphor for Tennis TV, the ATP Tour’s over the-top (OTT) live and on-demand subscription streaming service. Since ATP Media – the ATP’s broadcast arm – announced a major revamp of the platform in 2016, the product has risen in its popularity.
The decision was taken to split from women’s tennis’ WTA tour, focusing Tennis TV solely on the men’s game.
Up to 2,000 games are available on the platform each year, with 64 ATP tournaments coming together in the unique package.
While the platform does not hold the digital rights to the sport’s four Grand Slams – the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open, a wide array of non-live programming such as on-demand replays, highlights, features and classic matches has given the product a range of content offerings to a loyal fanbase.
Earlier in 2018, the Rivalries series was launched, providing footage of clashes between some of the sport’s biggest ever names.
Ahead of the SportsPro OTT Summit in Madrid, ATP Media digital product director Andrew Hall spoke to SportsPro about Tennis TV’s potential to grow the sport through further innovation, the importance of non-live content and a decreasing reliance on the sport’s iconic stars.
What is the key to building a successful far-reaching OTT platform?
Get the streaming, the registration and payment right. Additional features are certainly ‘nice-to-have’ but ultimately the product is judged primarily on the content and the viewing experience.
What are the biggest challenges you have faced over the years in the creation and development of Tennis TV into what it is today?
Doing a complete migration from Perform to Deltatre at the end of 2016 was a considerable challenge. At that point we also parted company with the WTA, becoming an ATP-only product and so we had to manage that with our subscribers.
Completely reinventing the ecosystem and taking on the direct running and management of key elements ourselves such as payments and customer service proved to be challenge.
What trends have you seen in terms of content consumption on the platform?
We are seeing increasing use of streaming boxes and gaming platforms as entertainment hubs. Mobile usage is important for certain use-cases but people still prefer bigger screens for their long-form sports viewing experience.
Tablets are important devices for us. Replays are a significant part of the product mix – Tennis TV now has more that 10,000 hours of on-demand content. Overall users now expect a TV experience whatever device they’re on and so it’s probably no surprise that viewers are happy to sit on a day-long TV-style feed.
How much has the availability of highlights, features, classic matches and on-demand replays influenced the service? How crucial is that non-live element in the grand scheme of the Tennis TV product?
Non-live now accounts for between 25 per cent and 50 per cent of minutes consumed. The importance of Tennis TV as an on-demand catch-up service can’t be underestimated. With tournaments and subscribers all around the world, there will always be fans who can’t watch because of the time-zone. So delivering every match as a full-replay, and having that available for as long as you’re subscribed is a great benefit that our subscribers really appreciate.
Additionally, our classic match archive presents the matches as they were broadcast at the time – when we surveyed our audience, seeing these matches in full was a surprisingly popular request, so that’s what we did.
So we have Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal making their ATP World Tour debuts, and a wealth of matches going back to the 1990s featuring Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Boris Becker and Michael Chang. These matches are all taken from the ATP Archive – a B2B platform that is also available to broadcasters.
How reliant is Tennis TV on the sport’s top players, given that the service does not have the rights to the Grand Slams?
Tennis TV certainly benefits from a boost when Federer or Nadal is playing. However with 64 tournaments the ATP Tour is a fantastic year-round story. There is always a competitive field at the nine ATP Masters 1000s in particular and the top players feature during these events as they build their ranking points.
There are some great players just outside the mainstream who move the needle for certain territories – Kei Nishikori in Japan, Dominic Thiem in Austria, Hyeon Chung in South Korea – as well as new stars always emerging.
We’ve seen a boost this year in Greece with the emergence of Stefanos Tsitsipas who won the Next Gen Finals in Milan recently. He’ll be a big star for us in the coming years.
The ATP Tour has a clear objective to build the profiles and tell the stories of the new generation of players – they’re the future of the sport and of the Tennis TV product.
What have you found in terms of the uptake to an OTT service across different generations? How do you look to bring people, who have traditionally been used to consuming their content through linear channels, into the digital landscape?
Tennis TV has a number of older users, and we never underestimate the desire or ability of older users to access our service. The simplicity of being able to get the sport you love on your chosen devices through a specialist OTT channel – and uninterrupted by ads – really plays to the older audience.
At the other end of the age spectrum, our youngest users demonstrate the greatest willingness to choose an OTT product – in combination with social media – as their primary means of consuming the sport. Tennis TV’s social media strategy works hand-in-hand with our OTT product to target younger fans.
How do you look to develop Tennis TV from here from an innovation perspective?
We always keep an open mind about cutting-edge technology features like augmented reality (AR), but our focus at present is on delivering an even better experience for users, and on working with major broadcaster licensees in key territories to build on the success of Tennis TV and integrate our product with their own OTT efforts.
The next phase of Tennis TV’s development is as a complementary product for broadcasters that can be localised and serve large numbers of tennis fans within their own subscription base.
Andrew Hall is speaking at the OTT Summit, which is taking place at Meliá Castilla in Madrid from 28th to 29th November, more information here
