BT in Discussions for UK Athletics Sponsorship, Picks Up WTA Rights
January 11, 2013
British multinational company, BT are in significant discussions with UK Athletics to become their new main sponsors according to the Daily Telegraph.
UK Athletics have been without a major backer since Aviva ended their 13th year association with the governing body while BT sponsored London 2012.
The new partnership will fall inside UK Athletics new sponsorship model which looks to incoporate a number of sponsors rather than one major backer.
Also new sports channel, BT Sport has struck a deal with the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) to show live matches from 21 WTA tournaments around the world.
The deal gives BT Sport the rights to show as much as 800 hours of live tennis per year, including the end-of-season TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships. The four-year deal includes the five major WTA tournaments held in Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Beijing and Istanbul. For 2013 the rights will be held jointly with the previous rightsholder Eurosport, but from 2014 will be held exclusively by BT Sport.
Simon Green, head of BT Sport, said: “This is our first women’s sport for the channels and we see a genuine opportunity to really develop the exposure for women’s sport with our new channels. We are focusing on several more women’s sports and we hope to be able to announce more rights soon.”
Stacey Allaster, WTA chairman and CEO, said: “The UK has long been a fantastic market for women’s tennis, with some of the very best and most knowledgeable fans in the world.”
“Along with BT Sport, we look forward to bringing the best in women’s tennis, including Britain’s rising stars Laura Robson and Heather Watson, to the fans of Great Britain.”
BT has chosen the iCITY, the former International Broadcast Centre at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, as the home of its BT Sport channels. BT Sport will show 38 live games a season from the Barclays Premier League, including 18 of the top clashes, for three years from August 2013. The channels will also show 69 live rugby union games a season from the Aviva Premiership.