WTA Ventures, Tennis Channel agree to a six-year rights deal through 2032
The agreement with WTA Ventures does not include events held in the United States, which fall under other contracts.
The deal comes with four American women in the top 10 of the WTA rankings: No. 2 Coco Gauff, No. 3 Jessica Pegula, No. 6 Madison Keys and No. 10 Emma Navarro.
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CNBC
2 minutes ago
- CNBC
American money pours into Europe's soccer giants as club valuations soar
European soccer is a bigger business than ever, with clubs in the continent's five top leagues raking in 20.4 billion euros ($23.7 billion) in revenue in the 2023-2024 season — and American investors have been eyeing a piece of that pie. U.S. investors now own, fully or in part, the majority of soccer teams in England's Premier League. That now includes four of the traditional Big Six clubs, with Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal all attracting U.S. investment. Rapid growth in revenues has been the key attraction. In the 1996-97 season, when the Premier League was established in England, revenues across the five biggest European leagues totaled 2.5 billion euros, according to Deloitte analysis. In 2023-24, that figure ballooned by 750%. That growth has led to sharp increases in valuations for Europe's biggest soccer teams. The Glazer family, which also owns the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, bought Manchester United for £790 million ($1.07 billion) in 2005. In 2024, a minority stake sale to billionaire Jim Ratcliffe pegged the club at around £5 billion, or the biggest valuation in world soccer. Kieran Maguire, associate professor in football finance at the University of Liverpool, told CNBC on Wednesday that the rising levels of U.S. ownership in European soccer have been driven by higher wealth aggregation Stateside. "It's actually a bit of a no brainer … what else you can do with your cash? You can only have so many helicopters, you can only have so many super yachts." According to Maguire, the small number of top professional sports teams available to purchase has also contributed to rising demand, with investors unable to meet the multi-billion dollar price tags attached to NFL or NBA teams in the U.S. looking to European soccer as an alternative. More than 36 of clubs in Europe's five biggest leagues now have private equity, venture capital or private debt participation through majority or minority stakes, including a majority of clubs in the Premier League, according to PitchBook research. The data shows a sharp increase in M&A deal activity in European soccer clubs, from just 66.7 million euros in 2018 to almost 2.2 billion euros in 2024. Many private equity investors in soccer have looked to the multi-club ownership model to boost their investments. Speaking to CNBC, PitchBook Senior EMEA Private Capital Analyst Nicolas Moura said many U.S. investors want to "build a variety of different football clubs," and that the model can have marketing and financial benefits. But the increasing prevalence of multi-club ownership has risked the ire of regulators, with Moura saying that European soccer body UEFA is "starting to crack down on clubs." This summer, England's Crystal Palace was barred from participating in UEFA's Europa League competition due to a breach of multi-club ownership rules. American businessman John Textor owns a stake in the English club as well as in France's Lyon, which also qualified for the competition. Moura says the decision — which Crystal Palace labelled as an "injustice" — could become more of an issue as more clubs involved in multi-club structures move into Europe's top divisions. The growth of soccer revenues has slowed in recent years, with Deloitte saying it sees income "plateauing" in the 2025-26 season on the back of slowing growth in the value of sports media rights. That has left commercial revenue — up 6% in the 2023-24 season, per Deloitte — as a main driver, as clubs clinched new sponsorship deals and looked to utilize stadiums for non-soccer events. Moura says lots of U.S. private equity investors are "looking to do their stands, their entire stadiums" in a bid to diversify away from broadcast income. The search for growth in commercial and match day revenues could see more clubs holding regular matches overseas. Spain's La Liga will take its first regular season game abroad this season, as current champions Barcelona prepare to play Villareal in Miami. Italy's Serie A is also considering an international game, with the country's governing body approving plans for a match in Australia. Until now, games in domestic leagues have not been allowed to be played outside of their home country, with global governing body FIFA considering a formal change to its rules on overseas matches. Maguire says Premier League clubs will eventually look to hold games overseas to compete with rival European leagues, and that the money generated will mean games "will be sold to the fan base … effectively as a fait accompli." The Premier League has not publicly entertained the idea of taking regular season games out of England, with CEO Richard Masters telling CNBC the league is "very different" from American peers when it comes to international games.
Business Insider
32 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Sam Altman says there was a big reason OpenAI released its open-weight models
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said China's open-source models drove the company to release its open-weight models earlier this month. "It was clear that if we didn't do it, the world was gonna be mostly built on Chinese open-source models," Altman said during a media briefing CNBC reported on Monday. "That was a factor in our decision, for sure. Wasn't the only one, but that loomed large," he added. OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. OpenAI released two open-weight models, gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b, on August 5. The former is designed for high-end computers, while the latter is meant to be run on "most desktops and laptops." The launch marked the first time OpenAI published an open-weight model since the release of GPT-2 in 2019. Unlike "closed" models, users can run and fine-tune an "open-weight" model locally. GPT-3, GPT-4, and the brand new GPT-5 are all closed models. Altman said in an X post on August 5 that OpenAI believes gpt-oss to be the "best and most usable open model in the world." The OpenAI CEO said that releasing the models aligned with OpenAI's mission "to ensure AGI that benefits all of humanity." AGI, or artificial general intelligence, refers to a theoretical form of AI that can think and reason like humans. "To that end, we are excited for the world to be building on an open AI stack created in the United States, based on democratic values, available for free to all and for wide benefit," he wrote in his X post. To be sure, OpenAI isn't the only American tech company that has made its models open. Social media giant Meta's Llama models are also open-weight, though its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, wrote in an essay last month that Meta will need to be "careful about what we choose to open source." In January, Chinese AI startup DeepSeek stunned the world with its high-performing but relatively cheaper R1 model. R1 is an open-source and open-weight model. President Donald Trump told GOP lawmakers then that he saw DeepSeek's success as a "positive" and a "wake-up call" for American tech companies. During a Reddit AMA in January, Altman said that OpenAI would follow DeepSeek's lead and release its model weights as well. "I personally think we have been on the wrong side of history here and need to figure out a different open source strategy," he said.
Business Upturn
35 minutes ago
- Business Upturn
Arvind shares surge over 2% as Govt removes duty on cotton imports till Sept 30
By Aditya Bhagchandani Published on August 19, 2025, 09:27 IST Shares of Arvind Ltd climbed over 2.5% to ₹300.80 on Tuesday, August 19, after the government temporarily removed the 11% customs duty on raw cotton imports, a move aimed at easing input costs for the textile and garment industry. The Finance Ministry, through a notification, exempted cotton imports from both basic customs duty and the Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess (AIDC) from August 19 to September 30. The exemption provides a short-term relief window of 42 days, which industry bodies say will help align domestic cotton prices with international levels. The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) welcomed the measure, stating it had been a long-pending demand. 'CITI has long been requesting that the import duty on cotton be removed to help domestic cotton prices align with international prices. We, therefore, greatly welcome this measure, even though the relief is only temporary,' said Chandrima Chatterjee, Secretary, CITI. The move comes at a time when Indian textile exporters are grappling with steep 50% tariffs imposed by the US, far higher than the 20% levied on Bangladesh and 30% on China. Exporters fear revenue losses and shrinking market share in the crucial American market, which remains India's largest destination for textile and apparel shipments. Arvind Ltd, a leading textile manufacturer with strong exposure to fabrics and garments, is expected to benefit from the exemption, along with peers like Vardhman Textiles, Welspun, Trident and Raymond. Market analysts believe the relief could ease cost pressures in the near term, boost margins, and support export competitiveness, even if shipments don't see a significant uptick during the exemption period. Ahmedabad Plane Crash Aditya Bhagchandani serves as the Senior Editor and Writer at Business Upturn, where he leads coverage across the Business, Finance, Corporate, and Stock Market segments. With a keen eye for detail and a commitment to journalistic integrity, he not only contributes insightful articles but also oversees editorial direction for the reporting team.
