WTA Ventures Appoints IMG as Its New Production Partner
This week, I wrote about WTA Ventures' broadcast rights deal with CazéTV in Brazil, the agreement that will bring the entire WTA Tour to free digital streaming across the country starting in 2027. The agency behind that deal, IMG, has just picked up a bigger role inside WTA Ventures' operation.
IMG has been appointed as WTA Ventures' managed production services partner, a multi-year agreement beginning with the 2027 season, covering production across more than 50 WTA Tour events annually.
What the deal covers
IMG will lead production across the WTA Finals, WTA 1000, WTA 500 and WTA 250 tournaments. Services will vary by event but generally include host broadcast production, world feed production, venue connectivity, global distribution, technical operations and short-form content production. Alongside the WTA and, at some tournaments, host broadcasters appointed directly by the event, IMG will also manage the wider ecosystem of specialist production partners, including outside broadcast and graphics providers, positioning the agency as a single coordinating layer across the tour's production chain.
Marina Storti, CEO of WTA Ventures, described the move as part of the tour's ongoing push to raise production quality and deepen audience engagement. Barney Francis, Chief Business Officer at IMG, called it a natural extension of the two organizations' existing relationship, and Sally Brown, IMG's VP and Head of Multisport Content, framed the appointment as an opportunity to help elevate how the WTA's story is told across broadcasters and platforms.
Building on an existing relationship
This appointment adds to work IMG already does for the tour. The agency represents WTA Ventures' broadcast rights across the Americas and Asia Pacific, the division responsible for both the Tennis Channel extension in the US and the CazéTV agreement in Brazil. IMG also helped broker the WTA's sponsorship agreement with Mercedes-Benz, one of the tour's marquee commercial partnerships.
IMG's broader production portfolio spans a wide range of sports beyond tennis, including the DP World Tour, Major League Soccer, the English Football League, the Saudi Pro League, UFC, the Ryder Cup, the Solheim Cup, The Open Championship, Netflix's Six Kings Slam, and CBS's UEFA Champions League and Europa League coverage.
Why it matters
Production quality has become a growing focus for the WTA as it looks to compete for attention in an increasingly crowded sports media landscape. Consolidating rights representation, sponsorship brokering and now production under a single, experienced partner gives WTA Ventures a faster path to consistent, high-quality coverage across a global tour calendar than building the same infrastructure independently would allow.
The agreement takes effect with the 2027 season, alongside the CazéTV deal and the broader shift in how WTA Ventures is packaging the tour for broadcasters and fans worldwide.
Jake Scudder
Journalist – topics of tennis
