Neo Sports Plus bags television rights of Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, Fed Cup, Davis Cup

Neo Sports Plus, the all sports channel which is part of Neo Sports Broadcast stable, has acquired the television rights for the Sony Ericsson Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour and signed an agreement with the International Tennis Federation (IFT) for broadcasting the Fed Cup and the Davis Cup for the period 2008-2011.

The live telecast of Sony Ericsson WTA Tour tennis commences on Neo Sports Plus from February 9, 2008. The telecast of the Fed Cup and Davis Cup on the channel has already started from February 2, 2008.

The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour is considered among the world’s premier professional sports for women. It attracts more than four million spectators worldwide. In 2007, the awards featured more than 2,000 players representing 90 nations competing for over US $ 70 million in prize money at 60 events in 34 countries. Neo Sports Plus will telecast exclusively all tier 1 and tier 2 events of the tour calendar for the four seasons of 2008. The tour will start with the semi finals of the Open Gaz de France being held in Paris on February 9. The 2008 season comprising of 24 top tier tennis events concludes in November with the Sony Ericsson Championships - Qatar 2008 Championships in Qatar.

On the other hand IFT’s Fed Cup is one of the popular annual team competitions in women’s sport featuring some of the biggest names in women’s tennis. And, Davis Cup also comes among world’s popular annual competition in sports. It features prominent names in the tennis world.

This season of the Fed Cup and Davis Cup will have Indian tennis players such as Sania Mirza, Leander Paes, Karan Rastogi, Divij Sharan and Rohan Bopanna among others. The top levels of Fed Cup and Davis cup begin with Israel v Russia featuring Maria Sharapova and Russia v Serbia featuring Novak Djokovic. The Davis Cup match takes place on February 8 – 10, 2008.

Commenting on the development, Prasana Krishnan, executive vice-president, strategy and business development, Neo Sports Plus, says, “The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, Fed Cup and Davis Cup feature the best events in tennis and include the leading stars of the sports. With the acquisition of these rights, we will continue to deliver to our viewers the very best of tennis across the globe to all tennis lovers in India.”