MUMBAI: The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has announced that television coverage for its two major team events - Davis Cup for men and Fed Cup for women have grown in terms of television coverage.
 
 

This weekend's Fed Cup Final between France and Russia will see 16 broadcasters covering the event live. The total reach will be of 46 countries in all five continents. They include India, France, Russia, UK, Spain, US, Brazil, Middle East, China, Singapore and Malaysia.

The Fed Cup ties which took place from 10-11 July 2005 were shown in over 35 countries by more than 30 broadcasters. All ten World Group ties received television coverage. In Russia, NTV Plus and RTR combined to show more than 20 hours of dedicated coverage from their semifinal clash with US. The tie was also broadcast in 35 other countries including India.
 
 

As far as the Davis Cup is concerned more than 40 broadcasters reaching over 100 countries covered the recent Quarter Finals played in July. The Russia vs France tie attracted 12 broadcasters reaching 30 countries. Domestic broadcasters NTV Plus and RTR showed over 26 hours of dedicated coverage, while France TV had good audiences throughout the weekend registering a peak of 2.5 million viewers with a market share of over 20 per cent.

Croatia’s HRT registered strong figures throughout the weekend during its team’s historic victory against Romania, with a peak market share of 31.8 per cent, while TV Romania reached the 20 per cent mark. Slovak TV enjoyed market shares of over 25 per cent for every day of their team’s defeat of the Netherlands, and Channel 7 (Australia) regularly achieved market shares of over 35 per cent in their tie against Argentina, which was also broadcast in Spain, France and the US.