SET FOR SUCCESS: WHY 2017 WILL BE A LANDMARK YEAR FOR WOMEN’S TENNIS

WTA + SPORTCAL INSIGHT

Pictures: Getty Images, WTA, WTA Media

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WTA: PIONEERING CHANGEThe WTA has successfully campaigned

for equal prize money at the four Grand Slams, saw Chris Evert become the first female athlete to break $1 million in prize money in 1976 and struck an $88-million deal with Sony Ericsson in 2005 which was the largest sponsorship in tennis history and women’s professional sport. The women’s tour also helped put the sport on the map in new regions including China, the Middle East and Russia.

Throughout its illustrious history, the WTA has been a leader in innovation, introducing electronic line-calling and on-court coaching in 2006 to boost engagement with fans. And since last year, it’s been offering coaches and players access to in-match data to help analyse performance.

The WTA is proud of its heritage and status as the number one professional sport for women, but, under the leadership of chief executive Steve Simon, who came on board in October 2015, it wants to compete with all professional sports and challenge the major men’s sports leagues.

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Ever since the Women’s Tennis Association was

founded by Billie Jean King in a London hotel

in 1973, the tour has been at the forefront of

change. What started when King and eight other

pioneering women signed a $1 contract in 1970

has grown into a global powerhouse with more

than 2,500 players competing for $137 million in

prize money at 55 events.

Original 9: the pioneering women and their symbolic $1 bills

events, is “confusing” for fans and broadcasters alike, Simon admits.

Part of that is to do with the sport of tennis “which has had a history of diluting its product versus aggregating its product.”

Simon’s vision is simple yet clear:“We’re creating a structure where we have the

best of the best playing against each other. When Serena moves on, in this format the next “Serena” will be there who will become the new number one player in the world. It’s the way sports works.”

Simon envisions a new platform “that clearly delineates what the viewer is consuming and watching when they do sit down to watch a WTA match.”

In other words, viewers need to know what that match means, where in the game the players are and that they are watching the very best at work. Instead of focusing on just two or three players, the new platform will be able to tell the stories of 150 competitors, where they are in their career progression, the story of their ascension and also of relegation, which Simon views as “a key element of sport.”

The new circuit structure will be incentive-driven, with the players reaping rewards based upon how well they are playing in WTA events, which in turn helps raise the profile and importance of these events.

CONTENT The final pillar of the WTA’s new strategy revolves

around driving digital content.Although the general tennis audience is between

25 and 50 years of age – a desirable age bracket for advertisers and sponsors – Simon wants to reach out to the next generation.

Steve Simon: “I’m greedy. We want to continue to retain our current audience as well as recruiting future audiences. The future is going to be all of our children and the kids in college who are coming through. We need to be in that space as well.”

One way of driving digital content is through data technology.

After announcing a multi-year partnership in 2013, the WTA and Germany-based software giant SAP last year unveiled SAP Tennis Analytics for Coaches, which provides coaches with access to real-time performance data during matches. Earlier in 2016, the WTA and SAP introduced an on-court coaching tablet that will not only help players and coaches gain a competitive edge over their opponents, but also draw in fans and media.

For example, US Fed Cup team captain Mary Joe Fernandez gave fans a detailed analysis via the WTA’s Twitter feed of how former world number one Victoria Azarenka got the better of two-time major champion Svetlana Kuznetsova despite a weaker service game than usual in the finals of the Miami Open in April.

o just how is the WTA going to be rubbing shoulders with the likes of the Premier League, NFL and NBA on the global stage?

Simon’s plan of attack consists of driving through change across three pillars: broadcast, circuit structure and digital. There is one important thread that runs through all three pillars.

Steve Simon: “The audience is key to unlocking value. Everything we do has to be towards that purpose and that goal. It’s audience, audience, audience.”

Simon also emphasises the importance of integration and aggregation.“It’s about working with our members, our partners, our broadcasters, all of our various constituencies in our business and in our sport, where we can enhance, support and complement versus trying to compete on every avenue that we go.”

BROADCASTCreated in 2014 out of a ground breaking and

record-setting 10-year, $525-million broadcast rights and production deal with London-based Perform Group, WTA Media will be producing every one of WTA’s 2,000 main draw singles matches as well as every doubles semi-final and final from 2017. That’s up from 800 matches now.

Catering to a younger audience that watches sports differently, the new venture will also produce off-court content, news programmes and the WTA Magazine Shows that fans can watch on television, handheld devices such as smartphones or tablets and PCs.

For the first time in tennis, the WTA has aggregated all of the international broadcast rights for all of its events.

This centralised production and sales model will push its global potential television audience to over 450 million in 2017, from 400 million in 2016. Instead of being exposed to 21 events, in 2017, sports fans in these households will be able to watch 55 events.

“It’s a major step forward,” Simon says. “This is really becoming a game changer for us. The potential reach and ongoing value from that changes significantly when you’ve more than doubled the amount of events and matches that will be going through that audience.” CIRCUIT STRUCTURE

With multiple Grand Slam winner Serena Williams now in the mix as being one of the greatest athletes of all time, it would have been easy for the WTA to rest on its laurels.

Not so for Simon, who is applying the same consumer-oriented approach to the WTA as he did to the BNP Paribas Open Indian Wells event.

Simon was tournament director at Indian Wells between 2004 and 2015 and turned it into “the fifth major” – or the biggest two-week combined tennis event outside of the four Grand Slam events and the most attended WTA and men’s ATP World Tour tournament in the world.

“There’s going to be the conversation, ‘what are you going to do when there is no more Serena?’” Simon remarks. “We’ve had that conversation many times before. Who’s going to be the next Chris Evert, the next Martina Navratilova, who is going to be the next Steffi Graf?”

That’s where an overhaul of the WTA’s circuit structure comes into play. The current calendar, with International series events and Premier series

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$525mVALUE OF RECORD BROADCAST AND

PRODUCTION DEAL WITH PERFORM

450mWTA’s PROJECTED GLOBAL

TV AUDIENCE IN 2017THREE-PILLAR STRATEGYS

8La Liga2016

9,000 The amount of programmes of La Liga broadcasting in

Spain in 2015-16, that had a significant increase in near-live

broadcasts and repeats.WTA PREMIER EVENTS2013 - 2017

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913mPROJECTED TV HOUSEHOLD REACH

FOR WTA PREMIER EVENTS IN 2017

873mTOTAL CUMULATIVE TV VIEWERSHIP FOR

WTA PREMIER EVENTS FROM 2013 TO 2015

101m PROJECTED CUMULATIVE TV VIEWERSHIP

FOR WTA INTERNATIONAL EVENTS IN 2017

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NORTH AMERICA

TV Audience 2013-2017 260.9m

2017 - Household Reach 112.3m

CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA

TV Audience 2013-2017 48.5m

2017 - Household Reach 92.1m

EUROPE

TV Audience 2013-2017 966.3m

2017 - Household Reach 186.2m

AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST

TV Audience 2013-2017 68.6m

2017 - Household Reach 43.7m

ASIA PACIFIC

TV Audience 2013-2017 298.2m

2017 - Household Reach 479.1m

Data source: SMG Insight

Shaded countries are those hosting WTA Premier or International tournaments in 2017

s WTA Media embarks on the production of 2,000 live matches from 2017 under the multi-million broadcasting deal with

Perform, media rights sales and distribution are exceeding all forecasts.

So far, international media rights have been sold to 115 countries, including Fox Sports in the Netherlands, BT Sport in the UK and Ireland, Sony Pictures Television in Latin America and beIN Sports in seven territories including USA, Australia, France, Spain and the MENA region.

“The media rights cycle has been going outstanding,” remarks WTA Media managing director John Learing, adding that he’s aiming to reach 150 countries by the end of the 2016.

The reason for that is simple, according to Learing.“Broadcasters love localisation. Everybody loves

to showcase the local hero.”For example, it wasn’t always possible in the past

for British broadcasters to show local stars Heather Watson and Australian Open semi-finalist Johanna Konta because not all WTA matches were played in front of a TV camera. Under the new deal, BT Sport will be able to offer tennis fans in the UK and

10La Liga2016

9,000 The amount of programmes of La Liga broadcasting in

Spain in 2015-16, that had a significant increase in near-live

broadcasts and repeats.

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150NUMBER OF COUNTRIES WHERE MEDIA

RIGHTS WILL BE SOLD BY END OF 2016

100,000+WTA’S BROADCAST HOURS

GLOBALLY IN 2020

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A

GLOBAL MEDIA OPPORTUNITIESIreland every single one of their matches, either on television or online, a set up that is mirrored in markets worldwide, giving broadcasters and fans alike full access to their local heroes. AUDIENCE GROWTH

Citing a cumulative television audience analysis by independent audience company SMG Insight, WTA Media is forecasting a jump of almost 26 per cent in potential audience growth to more than 567 million between 2017 and 2020. The total number of hours broadcast globally is expected to exceed 100,000 by 2020, from just over 88,000 in 2016.

WTA Media is expecting Latin America and China to see the biggest jumps in audience growth. In a first for women’s tennis, WTA Media announced a partnership with Sony Latin America, which offers general entertainment shows including The Voice.

“What the Turner network, or TBS at the time, did with the NBA in the U.S., Sony would like to do with women’s tennis throughout Latin America,” says Learing, a former executive of golf’s PGA Tour who helped double its broadcast reach during a 12-year tenure.

“They are going to use us as a foray into sports, and they thought that women’s sports, especially the number one women’s sport in the world, was a perfect way for them to introduce themselves to a different audience throughout Latin America.”

Seven months after Sony bought the Latin American broadcast rights, Monica Puig clinched Puerto Rico’s first-ever gold medal at the Rio Olympics and became an instant star in the region. “They are looking for a local hero to root for and

it’s easy to get behind someone like Monica,” adds Learing. “She’s got the personality to jump into that pop culture landscape.”

Chinese growth will come off the back of the WTA’s strong presence in the country, where it is currently staging seven events and markets the television rights.

Local heroes driving audiences at home include Poland’s former Wimbledon finalist Agnieszka Radwanska and French Open champion Garbiñe Muguruza of Spain. Two-time Grand Slam champion, and new WTA World number one, Angelique Kerber has reignited interest from German broadcasters, with Eurosport netting a peak of 2.6 million viewers in Germany for her triumph in Melbourne. Her subsequent US Open win was watched by an average of 1.14 million Eurosport viewers in Germany.

NEW ANGLESWhen Learing became managing director of

WTA Media, he was given a clear mandate by Simon to “bring tennis into the 21st century.”

“The great and challenging thing about tennis is that from a television perspective, it hasn’t changed much in 30 years,” Learing notes. “In a world in which millennials like their content in chunks, long matches can be a tough sell. Our goal is to bring a little bit of 2016 into a very traditional sport.”

WTA Media will be experimenting with different and expanded camera angles, producing augmented reality graphics and condensing matches to suit local broadcasters.

Tennis matches are mostly shown from a high angle from a fixed camera position. While this allows viewers to see everything, it also means some of the speed and athleticism is lost. WTA Media will be using lower angle cameras to capture the intensity of the rallies.

John Learing: “New camera technology, expanded camera angles and augmented reality graphics will capture on court intensity like never before.”

WTA Media will also use graphics to tell part of the story of the match: from how many strides a player took in one particular point to how many forehands and backhands were hit.

WTA Media production unit

hroughout its history, the WTA has been bold, innovative and forward-looking. In the past 43 years, it has created a bright

future for budding female tennis players the world over as it entered new markets and territories and helped put women’s sports on the map.

It is no coincidence the majority of the world’s top-paid female athletes are tennis players; it has taken more than four decades of hard work, perseverance and above all, vision to get to that stage.

Although the WTA still has the most dominant player of the Open Era in its midst with Serena Williams, there are a host of exciting new young stars with huge followings in regional markets vying for the top spot and driving TV and digital audiences among a key demographic.

But being the number one sport for female athletes will only get you so far, and under the guidance of CEO Steve Simon, the WTA is entering

a completely new landscape that will transform the organisation into a challenger for the world’s top sports leagues.

2017 promises to be another landmark year for women’s tennis, as it starts to produce all of its matches in-house, pushing television, social and digital audiences to new highs. It also provides a clearer circuit structure so fans can follow the tour even more closely, while more announcements are expected in the digital and social arena very soon.

As 39-time Grand Slam champion Billie Jean King once said: “Don’t let anyone define you. You define yourself.”

A DIGITAL FUTURE ALL SET FOR LANDMARK 2017and doubles matches as well as player interviews, highlights and content from the monthly WTA Magazine Show. Chinese tennis fans will be able to access the content through personal computers, smartphones and over-the-top TV in English, Cantonese and Mandarin. iQIYI is investing in women’s tennis because of its high-end audience, which is a perfect match for iQIYI’s young, upwardly-mobile user base.

The WTA website and its Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts mostly engage fans in the 25-34 age bracket, with the 18-24 age group a close second. The WTA is also a major player in the social media landscape, with 145 million followers projected by the end of 2016, up from 120 million in 2015.

Proving the theory that local heroes engage fans in regional markets, Puig’s historic victory over Kerber in the women’s tennis finals at the Rio Olympics was the biggest event to date this year on the WTA’s social media channels, with more than nine million impressions on the day she won.

The WTA’s top four tweets of the year in terms of impressions – or views – are all related to celebrating Puerto Rico’s Puig, which is no mean feat during a season that saw Serena Williams chasing tennis history on the Grand Slam stage.

he final pillar of the WTA strategy is all about building new audiences by embracing new technologies.

Simon says: “The digital market is where our future is going to be. Through digital, we can begin to take our television product and make it available on a regional basis.”

In other words, digital allows fans of local stars to keep track of their favourite players.

Although it is hard to quantify potential digital audiences because there isn’t a lot of history, the WTA’s record 10-year agreement with iQIYI, China’s biggest online video content service platform owned by internet search engine Baidu, offers huge opportunities to engage with fans digitally as iQIYI will reach an audience of 300 million from 2017 in the world’s most populous nation alone.

As the WTA’s digital rights partner in China, iQIYI will offer live streaming of over 2,000 singles

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145mWTA’S TOTAL SOCIAL MEDIA

FOLLOWERS BY END OF 2016