Thank you, ESPN and AELTC!

[kanamit]

After years of having NBC screw up semifinals coverage by tape-delaying it in favor of showing the Today Show, it was so nice to be able to watch BOTH semifinals LIVE without having to worry about whether they would be shown in their entirety.

ESPN, you have shown NBC: this is how tennis coverage should be done. The ONLY thing I miss is NBC Wimbledon Music (Keith Mansfield's "World Champion." Hint: It must not cost that much for the rights to this music, ESPN.)

[Ripster]

I was just thinking about this yesterday during the men's semis. Wasn't it the Friday that NBC used to screw over everyone (especially the west coast)?

Kudos to ESPN

[MasturB]

As much as I hated NBC, they had a show "The Today Show" that produced much more revenue than Wimbledon. Easy business decision for them.

ESPN has the luxury of having ESPN and ESPN2 which are sports based channels, and all ESPN has to do is worry about booting off Sportscenter to another channel or if they use both they still have ESPNNews.

I think NBC should've utilized NBCSportsNetwork more than they did, but it was Versus back then. Versus just turned into NBCSN in January.

[crassus]

Originally Posted by MasturB

As much as I hated NBC, they had a show "The Today Show" that produced much more revenue than Wimbledon. Easy business decision for them.

ESPN has the luxury of having ESPN and ESPN2 which are sports based channels, and all ESPN has to do is worry about booting off Sportscenter to another channel or if they use both they still have ESPNNews.

I think NBC should've utilized NBCSportsNetwork more than they did, but it was Versus back then. Versus just turned into NBCSN in January.

That was, in fact, NBC's plan, when they bid against (and ultimately lost to) ESPN for Wimbledon coverage rights. Their proposal was to show matches live and in their entirety on a combination of NBC and NBCSports/Versus starting in 2014.

[BigServer1]

Coverage on ESPN has been exceptional this year. 2 channels showing live tennis, they're currently showing the Men's double's final, the Women's doubles final is next.

It's really the model for how a Grand Slam should be televised. I hope ESPN buys the complete rights to all the Grand Slams so they can do this for each of them.

[R_Federer]

Well they kind of lose points for ABC showing the final on replay come tomorrow! At least NBC would show the final LIVE! ABC did a great job of Wimbledon coverage last weekend BUT it wasn't live coverage. If they could just do the same thing but have it live it would be perfect.

So did ABC just win the rights to Wimbledon only? I enjoy the CBS coverage for the most part of the US Open (music, production etc.).

Australian Open - ESPN
French Open - ESPN & NBC
Wimbledon - ESPN & ABC
US Open - ESPN & CBS

Correct?

[BigServer1]

Originally Posted by R_Federer

Well they kind of lose points for ABC showing the final on replay come tomorrow! At least NBC would show the final LIVE! ABC did a great job of Wimbledon coverage last weekend BUT it wasn't live coverage. If they could just do the same thing but have it live it would be perfect.

So did ABC just win the rights to Wimbledon only? I enjoy the CBS coverage for the most part of the US Open (music, production etc.).

Australian Open - ESPN
French Open - ESPN & NBC
Wimbledon - ESPN & ABC
US Open - ESPN & CBS

Correct?

ABC is just showing replays of the Championship matches. ESPN has showed everything live.

It's 2012, so I have a hard time feeling bad for someone who doesn't have cable, a friend with cable or access to the internet.

[BigServer1]

Just to further the point, ESPN has been in live coverage for 6 hours now, and they stuck with a doubles final with no Americans through a rain delay.

This is so incredibly superior to ABC/NBC/CBS coverage it's not even funny.

[kanamit]

Originally Posted by crassus

That was, in fact, NBC's plan, when they bid against (and ultimately lost to) ESPN for Wimbledon coverage rights. Their proposal was to show matches live and in their entirety on a combination of NBC and NBCSports/Versus starting in 2014.

NBCSports/Versus? That's almost as bad as the Tennis Channel. You might as well put it on Current, SoapNET or some other obscure third-rate channel that a lot of carriers/packages don't have. If it's going to be on cable, it should be on a channel like ESPN with a very broad audience.

Plus I love espn3.

[stringertom]

Originally Posted by BigServer1

ABC is just showing replays of the Championship matches. ESPN has showed everything live.

It's 2012, so I have a hard time feeling bad for someone who doesn't have cable, a friend with cable or access to the internet.

I have a hard time feeling good about someone making the above judgemental statement.

First, the suggestion was "why not the handoff to ABC for the finals?". It's easy enough for cable/dish households to shift to the over-the-air channel and EVERYONE watches in the convenience and comfort of their own home. There is a precedent for this...NBA Finals. Did you have a problem with that handoff?

Second, if you have a HDTV and an inexpensive external antenna, you can stay in touch with this world just fine, minus the $1,200+ annual hit on the pocket for cable/dish. It IS 2012...that is the point and many households struggle to keep ahead of the bills. Have you not been following the news on your favorite cable news show?

Time to get off your high horse, my friend!

[jaggy]

ESPN has been good but they arent exactly all sports, they show golf

[kanamit]

Originally Posted by stringertom

I have a hard time feeling good about someone making the above judgemental statement.

First, the suggestion was "why not the handoff to ABC for the finals?". It's easy enough for cable/dish households to shift to the over-the-air channel and EVERYONE watches in the convenience and comfort of their own home. There is a precedent for this...NBA Finals. Did you have a problem with that handoff?

Second, if you have a HDTV and an inexpensive external antenna, you can stay in touch with this world just fine, minus the $1,200+ annual hit on the pocket for cable/dish. It IS 2012...that is the point and many households struggle to keep ahead of the bills. Have you not been following the news on your favorite cable news show?

Time to get off your high horse, my friend!

In fairness to both posters, I am actually surprised that ABC isn't carrying the finals live. But it's also true that it's getting to the point where high-speed internet is considered a basic appliance/necessity. And with it, you can stream basically every tennis match of importance. (Note that I am NOT referring to cable *television*, which I very rarely watch since it became saturated about a decade ago with trashy reality shows the cable networks love because of the ultra cheap production costs.)

[BigServer1]

Originally Posted by stringertom

I have a hard time feeling good about someone making the above judgemental statement.

First, the suggestion was "why not the handoff to ABC for the finals?". It's easy enough for cable/dish households to shift to the over-the-air channel and EVERYONE watches in the convenience and comfort of their own home. There is a precedent for this...NBA Finals. Did you have a problem with that handoff?

Second, if you have a HDTV and an inexpensive external antenna, you can stay in touch with this world just fine, minus the $1,200+ annual hit on the pocket for cable/dish. It IS 2012...that is the point and many households struggle to keep ahead of the bills. Have you not been following the news on your favorite cable news show?

Time to get off your high horse, my friend!

What high horse?

If you don't have cable, the internet, or a friend that has either, I don't really know what to say...I feel like it's nearly impossible in modern America to not have access to one of those three things.

As for the transfer to ABC, it's fine for the NBA Finals. They get huge ratings, it's a hugely popular sport in America, the games never run more than 3 hours, and it's in Primetime in the US. It's an entirely different thing than tennis coverage, which has multiple events that could run anywhere from 2 hours total to 8 hours total (like today).

Imagine if ABC had the women's final today, and ESPN had nothing. We wouldn't have seen either doubles final, because ABC would have moved to regular Saturday programming in lieu of more tennis.

I'm 100% fine with the system as is. If that makes me heartless and on a high horse, then so be it.

[R_Federer]

Originally Posted by BigServer1

What high horse?

If you don't have cable, the internet, or a friend that has either, I don't really know what to say...I feel like it's nearly impossible in modern America to not have access to one of those three things.

As for the transfer to ABC, it's fine for the NBA Finals. They get huge ratings, it's a hugely popular sport in America, the games never run more than 3 hours, and it's in Primetime in the US. It's an entirely different thing than tennis coverage, which has multiple events that could run anywhere from 2 hours total to 8 hours total (like today).

Imagine if ABC had the women's final today, and ESPN had nothing. We wouldn't have seen either doubles final, because ABC would have moved to regular Saturday programming in lieu of more tennis.

I'm 100% fine with the system as is. If that makes me heartless and on a high horse, then so be it.

Well I'm in Canada and we don't get ESPN here. We get ABC though. Obviously I can watch online but it won't be in HD so there's a huge difference.

Why couldn't ABC just show the single finals live and ESPN could have shown all the doubles stuff?

[Rock Strongo]

Originally Posted by kanamit

After years of having NBC screw up semifinals coverage by tape-delaying it in favor of showing the Today Show, it was so nice to be able to watch BOTH semifinals LIVE without having to worry about whether they would be shown in their entirety.

ESPN, you have shown NBC: this is how tennis coverage should be done. The ONLY thing I miss is NBC Wimbledon Music (Keith Mansfield's "World Champion." Hint: It must not cost that much for the rights to this music, ESPN.)

Just play this during each changeover

[R_Federer]

Originally Posted by Rock Strongo

Just play this during each changeover

Or this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKFBo...eature=related

Or how about this lovely theme ESPN used to have for Wimbledon:

http://youtu.be/QAQI_1Kjdpc

They need to bring that back to ESPN and ABC for Wimbledon! I like it better than NBC's version even. I know they won't bring it back but if they did people would quickly forget NBC's theme.

[ATXtennisaddict]

They should just keep all tennis slams on ESPN. Screw networks.

[jamesblakefan#1]

Originally Posted by stringertom

I have a hard time feeling good about someone making the above judgemental statement.

First, the suggestion was "why not the handoff to ABC for the finals?". It's easy enough for cable/dish households to shift to the over-the-air channel and EVERYONE watches in the convenience and comfort of their own home. There is a precedent for this...NBA Finals. Did you have a problem with that handoff?

Second, if you have a HDTV and an inexpensive external antenna, you can stay in touch with this world just fine, minus the $1,200+ annual hit on the pocket for cable/dish. It IS 2012...that is the point and many households struggle to keep ahead of the bills. Have you not been following the news on your favorite cable news show?

Time to get off your high horse, my friend!

It works both ways, today there are probably just as many people who have cable or satellite but don't get the local channel package that is offered by their provider as there are ppl who don't have cable or satellite or know someone with it. Second, $100/month isn't THAT much relatively speaking, yeah I know it's hard times and not everyone can afford everything, but if you don't have enough money to have an internet connection, cable, or satellite, or know someone that does then you probably have bigger fish to fry in general then having to watch a tennis match a few hours later on tape delay.

It's not 1992 or even 2002 anymore, it's 2012 and sports in general are shown more now on cable than they ever have been in the past. Yeah big evens like the SB and NBA Finals still broadcast over the air, but something big like the NCAA CFB championship isn't even OTA anymore, and the NCAA CBB Championship was close to being the same way. You're the one on the high horse in not seeing the other side in that the people who don't have access to cable or internet are the minority now.

[stormholloway]

Wait a second, on my guide it says the men's final is at 2:00pm, i.e. not live.

[R_Federer]

Originally Posted by stormholloway

Wait a second, on my guide it says the men's final is at 2:00pm, i.e. not live.

That's correct. ESPN is showing it live...ABC is showing replay.