The Vice President of Broadcast Operations will be responsible for the overall leadership and management of international broadcast operations and video content production for the Women's Tennis Association. Key responsibilities include the general management and oversight of needs for WTA members, International Media Rights Holders and key constituents. Specific focus will be on developing and maintaining strong relationships with this group, to maximize the exposure for women's tennis while balancing domestic and international interests, fairness to the athletes and maximizing exposure to fans. This includes overseeing the implementation of tournament host broadcasts and world feed production for WTA Premier tournaments in compliance with established standards.
The VP, Broadcast Operations will report to the Executive Vice President and lead a high performance team that will deliver broadcast services and production support to WTA members, broadcast partners and ultimately fans.
The successful candidate will have experience in television broadcast operations and a track record of proven success. The VP, Broadcast Operations must exhibit strong managerial effectiveness, leadership and strategic acumen; have an ability to adapt to multinational and cross-cultural issues, be a consensus builder and display excellent interpersonal skills.
Responsibilities:
• Leadership and Management of the WTA's Broadcast team and facilitation of a cooperative working relationship with WTA on-site Supervisors.
• WTA's key television liaison with the Tournament members, international rights holders, ATP Media and designated consultants.
• Manage media licensee partnerships to assure all WTA media licensees (Perform; ESPN; Tennis Channel; and Rogers Sport Net) are fully compliant and delivering their related contractual requirements.
• Premier Tournament Member management to establish and build confidence of Premier Tournament Members to foster excellent relations and respect among the members. Work with each member to maximize exposure in their domestic territory while at the same working to maximize distribution and meet the contractual requirements of the International Media Rights Holders. In addition the VP, Broadcast Operations will provide overall management of regular Premier Tournament media communications, meetings, presentations, broadcast reports, budgets and commercial distributions in coordination with the WTA's CAO.
• World Feed Compliance and Support to oversee the implementation of the host broadcast standards and technical requirements to ensure the Premier Tournaments and their host broadcasters are in compliance with WTA broadcast rules, standards and contractual requirements. Provide production assistance as required by Perform to ensure efficient pre event planning, access to the site, provision of required on-site operational requirements and assistance, on-site technical trouble shooting and access to a clean world feed from each Premier Tournament site.
• Oversight of all WTA broadcast content production including: (i) production of a clean world feed including graphics, English language commentary and editorial product and commercial messaging in coordination with the Marketing and Communications team; (ii) newsfeed clips; (iii) WTA magazine show; (iv) digital clip and video content production in close cooperation with the digital marketing team; (v) any additional WTA on-site content production; and (vi) archive library
• Oversight of WTA Championships Production at the WTA's year end Championships, including management of the Championships TV budget by developing production efficiencies and cost savings in collaboration with our production partner (currently Input Media).
• Strategic Planning to (i) develop recommendations to enhance the media presentation of the sport for by all Tournament members in order to improve product presentation and enhance the experience for fans, players, media and sponsors. Includes working in collaboration with Perform and ATP Media for the combined events; (ii) working closely with the EVP and CEO on developing the broadcast media strategy for 2017 and beyond; and (iii) developing an archive and clip licensing strategy in accordance with the WTA's existing Perform agreement.
Requirements:
• Extensive TV Production and management experience in global sports and/or the entertainment industry.
• Extremely high technical knowledge with significant High Definition (HD) experience.
• Thorough understanding and experience with global satellite transmission and distribution mechanics.
• Intelligent, organized leader with a partnership/customer service mentality, and significant experience running day-to-day TV operations in a multicultural environment.
• Superior team leadership and management skills, including ability to create an organized, efficient and enthusiastic team of skilled professionals, as well as a culture of accountability, financial discipline and a commitment to exceeding results.
• Outstanding customer relations with a mindset of service towards tournament members and broadcast partners.
• Strong consensus builder with ability to bring together for greater good multiple stakeholder groups with divergent views.
• Strong presentation and written communication skills; skilled negotiator and mediator
The ideal candidate will also possess a passion for and understanding of the sport of tennis, related governing bodies and industry stakeholders.
• Must be able to travel extensively (30-50%). Additionally, there may be periods of prolonged travel as it relates to implementing the 2013 requirements for the Perform Media Agreement.
To apply, please submit resume and salary requirements to: wtahr@wtatennis.com
