As part of a lucrative five-year global television deal that provided a needed cash infusion in 2016, the WTA sold the rights to its overseas tennis tournaments to beIN Sports, beginning with the 2017 season.
But it was fans who often paid the price. From the start, they were frustrated by beIN Sports’ often intermittent and inattentive coverage of women’s tennis, which was frequently relegated in the United States in favor of other sports, particularly soccer.
Eventually, WTA officials grew frustrated, too. The WTA cut short the United States portion of its worldwide rights deal with beIN Sports and returned to Tennis Channel in an agreement announced Monday.