Article: "American focus is plain ugly" -- SF Chro

Deuce

Banned
A good, truthful write-up of the situation.

When choosing which tennis match to televise, using any criteria other than the quality of the match is both wrong and cowardly.
 

Phil

Hall of Fame
Where does cowardice or courage come in? It's a business decision, pure and simple. Network execs only consider the criteria of $$$. Match quality is probably not even on their list until the end of the tournament.
 

goober

Legend
My question is- Those people that actually watch tennis matches on TV really want to see 3 replays of the Venus match? Do their ratings really go up when they do that?

The most interesting players on both the womens and mens side are currently nonamerican. :idea: 8)
 

Roforot

Professional
Phil said:
Where does cowardice or courage come in? It's a business decision, pure and simple. Network execs only consider the criteria of $$$. Match quality is probably not even on their list until the end of the tournament.

The Williams-Sprem match was a good quality match; and I was happy to see it live. I liked the Roddick-Popp match as well. What bothers me is when there is a rain delay or another quality match being played and they decide to replay a bogus match. It's a safe decision since it will garner some views in America. The benefits to american tennis from Roddick/Williams exposure has reached a point of diminishing returns. If you don't know about Venus & Serena by now, you're probably not watching or playing tennis.

It's riskier to show a Federer or Hewitt match b/c you don't have those names are not familiar to the public. Of course, if they were given more exposure, this could change. Imagine if Becker and Edberg matches had not been shown instead of just repeats of Connors and McEnroe? Foreign skilled players are a tappable asset. Just ask the NBA?

I'm not in the ESPN meetings; my guess is that they see the bleak ratings from the 3rd or 4th replay of Venus Williams and say, See, what kind of ratings would be get w/ a no name!
 

Chanchai

Semi-Pro
The debate over the exposure of non-american players in america (or even non-local players anywhere) will probably always surround the same type of notion of the chicken or the egg... Which one comes first?

I wish a network like The Tennis Channel, or something that covered tennis everyday took up a channel on every cable and dish service. Obviously, that isn't really the case... But I guess my hope would be that people who casually channel flip and somehow find something interesting when they pop the tv onto a tennis channel might get a bit more exposed to a player they would like that doesn't happen to be american. This is still wishful thinking, but I figure there might be some impact and the somewhat more serious among the casual tennis fans (or those that just watch sports all the time and maybe got sick of strongman contests and poker for a bit) might get a bit more exposure and develop curiosity for other players.

Blah... more rambling...

-Chanchai
 

Stinkdyr

Professional
Worry not, fans. The day cometh whence upon a time thou shalt get any match yo lil heart desires via internet. Ye shall then be freed of the chains of tv advertising $. Provided of course someone finds it worth their while to put the match onto the web for u2c.[/img]
 
let's all complain! Here are some relevant emails where you can voice your complaints:

I am basically going to write to NBC and ESPN requesting that they coordinate their coverage to provide seamless coverage to the entire country. The entire western and central quarters of the country are really getting ripped. I am going to send the same email to the players' agents, to let them know that their athletes are not getting the exposure they deserve. I might even copy the email to some of the major sponsors too. Cadillac is paying for national coverage and they are not getting it when ESPN is blacked out in 12 states.

sports@msnbc.com
askespntv@espn.twdc.com
jon_wertheim@simail.com

the agents: (put 'Tennis:Wimbledon coverage' in the subject line)
contact@sfx.com
phil.depicciotto@octagon.com (Hewitt and Grosjean)
clifford.bloxham@octagon.com (in the London office)
mgorski@imgworld.com (represent most of the women left in the draw)

Then go to the Wimbledon website and copy and paste your email into a Feedback form (the link is at the very bottom of the homepage).
 
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