A new three-year global rights agreement will bring ATP Tour events to immersive headsets in 360-degree 3D and 14K, beginning at the 2026 Rolex Shanghai Masters.
Watching professional tennis from home could soon feel considerably more like sitting courtside.
ATP Media has entered a three-year global partnership with immersive technology company L1VE, creating a new distribution channel that will allow fans to experience ATP Tour matches through virtual-reality and immersive headsets.
Under the agreement, L1VE becomes the Official Immersive Partner of ATP Media and receives worldwide immersive live rights covering nine ATP Masters 1000 tournaments, the Nitto ATP Finals and ATP 500 and ATP 250 events.
The partnership runs from October 1, 2026 through the end of 2028 and will officially launch at the Rolex Shanghai Masters in October.
Three ATP events are scheduled for immersive production during the remainder of 2026, followed by a full rollout beginning in 2027.
A Virtual Seat Inside the Stadium
The technology goes substantially beyond simply displaying a traditional tennis broadcast inside a headset.
L1VE plans to produce events in stereoscopic 360-degree 3D at 14K resolution, using dedicated camera positions around each venue. Those positions include low and high center-baseline perspectives, a coaching pod and a wider venue camera.
The feeds are combined in real time to create a single immersive environment designed to make viewers feel as though they are physically inside the stadium.
The experience will work with major immersive headsets including Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest.
L1VE calls its technology “Social Presence,” allowing viewers to virtually attend matches alongside a selected group of other ticket holders so they can see, hear and react to the action together.
Tickets Instead of Subscriptions
The commercial model is another interesting component of the partnership.
Rather than packaging the ATP experience as another streaming subscription, L1VE plans to sell access more like admission to an actual tournament.
Fans will be able to purchase a day pass covering every center-court match that day or a tournament pass providing access throughout an event.
That approach potentially creates an entirely new type of sports inventory—somewhere between a broadcast audience and an in-person ticket holder.
ATP Media says immersive coverage will complement rather than replace its existing television and streaming distribution.
Tennis Tests a New Media-Rights Category
The agreement could have implications extending beyond how fans watch individual matches.
Traditional sports media rights have largely revolved around television and, increasingly, streaming. Immersive technology introduces the possibility of another separately licensed category in which fans purchase virtual access to an event.
For tournaments, leagues and sponsors, that potentially creates new inventory without requiring additional physical seats inside a stadium.
L1VE Chief Commercial Officer David Morgenbesser emphasized that the ATP agreement is not simply a trial involving a single tournament. Instead, the company has secured worldwide rights across the Tour under a multi-year arrangement.
For ATP Media, the technology offers another way to reach tennis fans who cannot physically attend tournaments.
“Immersive is a genuinely new way for audiences to experience our events, and it sits alongside our broadcast and streaming distribution rather than competing with it,” ATP Media COO Tom Bullock said in announcing the partnership.
Trials Move Toward a Full Rollout
The partnership follows several tests conducted during the 2026 season.
L1VE produced immersive coverage under tournament conditions at Masters 1000 events in Miami, Madrid and Rome, as well as the ATP 250 tournament in Stuttgart.
Those trials are now moving into a commercial, multi-year deployment.
The complete schedule and details explaining how fans can purchase access are expected to be announced ahead of the Shanghai launch.
For tennis, the significance of the agreement may ultimately extend beyond virtual reality itself. ATP Media is effectively testing whether the feeling of occupying a premium seat at a live sporting event can become a distinct digital product.
If fans embrace it, the next valuable seat at a major tennis tournament may not actually be inside the stadium.
