MUMBAI: Sports marketing firm Total Sports Asia (TSA) has signed a deal with the United States Tennis Association (USTA) to market and distribute the TV, mobile, home video, broadband and Internet archive rights in Asia (excluding Japan) over the next four years.
 
 

Speaking to Indiantelevision.com this evening about the deal, Total Sports Entertainment India MD Navneet Sharma says, "This is a sport that has huge potential for viewership growth across Asia. In India, the sport has received a tremendous boost with Sania Mirza entering the top 50. Earlier this year we signed a deal with Ten Sports for the television rights to the event. Now we have signed the mobile rights to phoneytunes.com with whom we had earlier done a deal for the WWE for ringtones and wallpaper. We have also done a deal with Solar Interactive in the Philippines and iCable Hong Kong.

"We are working with Speedcast on the different features for the mobile content. "As far as the rest of Asia is concerned, the mobile holds promise especially in the South East region. It has helped that players like Paradorn Srichapan have had made a certain amount of impact. Broadband is another new media delivery platform that is growing in that region. We are in talks with different players regarding deals."
 
 

Sharma also says that a unique aspect of the deal is the fact that TSA has done a deal with BT Media and Broadcast for a fully managed broadcast distribution service to Asia, for the US Open tennis championships. The dedicated uplink service and satellite link will enable TSA to deliver a dedicated Asian feed.

Elaborating on further plans, Sharma says that in the near future TSA is looking to organise local tennis events in India that will be just one rung below an ATP tour event. India already has an ATP event that takes place in Chennai every year. Sharma is encouraged by the fact that more people are taking to the game now.