Had it with Slam broadcast

[Roddick85]

It's been getting worst year after year, but this morning, I just couldn't take it anymore. The broadcasting of all the various slams by both american and canadian TV network is so bad that I now much prefer watching WTF/1000/500 than those great tournaments. Not only do I have to put up with the american's obsession with the William sisters or John Isner and his fellow journeymens, but we (canadian's) now have to deal with TSN's new found obsession with Milos Raonic and Genie Bouchard. I can't express how frustrated I was this morning when watching a rather interesting Federer vs Gulbis match, it gets cut all of a sudden to switch over to Milos Raonic vs Marcel Granoller? Just how ridiculous can this get? Same thing happened at the Australian Open earlier this year. It doesn't make sense to me that when tennis greats like Nadal/Federer/Djokovic are playing, they're matches gets interrupted so they can show the local flavor instead of the better matches.

Now that my favorite slam (Wimbledon) will start soon, matches will again get cut short or start 10-15 minutes later so we can have a sit through with Carillo/Evert etc... about the Williams sister or to discuss some statistics that no one cares about. They're needs to be an alternative to watch slams than ESPN/TSN etc...Anyone that's remotely into tennis surely enjoys more the commentary free streaming than this awful broadcast.

So in the end, I would like to raise a middle finger to ESPN and another one to TSN, you managed to **** me off one too many times.

 

[ollinger]

The problem is this: tennis for most people has become a very boring game. Monotonous back-and-forth rallies and matches in a slam that can go on for hour after hour. This, for normal human beings (i.e. casual fans) is extremely boring. TV networks deal with this by switching back and forth between matches in the hope of keeping the casual viewers' interest. It may frustrate you but the network doesn't care because you are an addict who is hooked and will watch no matter what. What the networks do is good business practice.

 

[m2nk2]

Just get a better service. Then you can watch matches from maybe 8 different courts, and chose which one you want to watch.

You may not have commentary on all courts but that's fine.

 

[ShahofTennis]

Maybe find a service that will allow you to access ESPN Go with your cable package. They usually broadcast matches separately so there are no interruptions.
It's probably even a good idea to go online and see if the company you have a current cable/satellite subscription with offers access, and it very well might.

 

[rodrigoamaral]

Agreed.. pam shriver and mary carillo should be banned from anything tennis

 

[Steve0904]

Yes, today was a rather bad day in this regard for us Canadians who prefer Federer over Milosh. Not that TSN would have you believe there might be more Federer fans in Canada than the terror from Thornhill. That would be blasphemy!

Problem is there are too many casual fans in Canada who don't really give a damn about tennis other than Raonic.

 

[Sander001]

I've been thinking about cutting the cable for a very long time now. The only thing I keep it around for is tennis coverage of the Slams.

But now I understand that you can get coverage online and you can also use a VPN service to regionalize your Internet to ESPN for example and watch it completely online. I'll look into it more once I have more time.

 

[tennisaddict]

What about Direct TV or Tennis Channel Plus ?

It is better during the USO with ESPN 3/ Watch ESPN when you can see all the courts. But other majors we have this issue.

 

[Devil_dog]

Recently got the Tennis Channel Plus subscription and that with my Tennis TV and WatchESPN apps, I have little to no reliance on broadcast networks spoon-feeding to a broader audience. I watch what I want.

 

[MasturB]

For tennis Channel Plus do they give you the non-tennis channel announcers?

Like Goodall-Koenig?

Or is it just the feed of the matches like ESPN3 sometimes where there's no audio commentary.

 

[bl14]

try the espn app you can select individual matches to watch

 

[Devil_dog]

For tennis Channel Plus do they give you the non-tennis channel announcers?

Like Goodall-Koenig?

Or is it just the feed of the matches like ESPN3 sometimes where there's no audio commentary.

TCP presents the match feeds with commentators but not Shriver or Mary Carrillo.

 

[Devil_dog]

try the espn app you can select individual matches to watch

Thing I don't always like about Watch ESPN is that they sometimes cut away to their sports slideshow or an advertisement. The Tennis Channel Plus subscription since it's paid only shows one ad (Lacoste) and then it's just the match. I like to occasionally see what's happening during the changeovers kind of like I'm actually at the match but I get commentary as a plus.

 

[TheStranger]

I stream online and most of the time, there's no commentators at all from whoever is hooking it up~

Those are the best matches when you can use your own brain to figure it out without the incessant babble.

 

[Down_the_line]

It's been getting worst year after year, but this morning, I just couldn't take it anymore. The broadcasting of all the various slams by both american and canadian TV network is so bad that I now much prefer watching WTF/1000/500 than those great tournaments. Not only do I have to put up with the american's obsession with the William sisters or John Isner and his fellow journeymens, but we (canadian's) now have to deal with TSN's new found obsession with Milos Raonic and Genie Bouchard. I can't express how frustrated I was this morning when watching a rather interesting Federer vs Gulbis match, it gets cut all of a sudden to switch over to Milos Raonic vs Marcel Granoller? Just how ridiculous can this get? Same thing happened at the Australian Open earlier this year. It doesn't make sense to me that when tennis greats like Nadal/Federer/Djokovic are playing, they're matches gets interrupted so they can show the local flavor instead of the better matches.

Now that my favorite slam (Wimbledon) will start soon, matches will again get cut short or start 10-15 minutes later so we can have a sit through with Carillo/Evert etc... about the Williams sister or to discuss some statistics that no one cares about. They're needs to be an alternative to watch slams than ESPN/TSN etc...Anyone that's remotely into tennis surely enjoys more the commentary free streaming than this awful broadcast.

So in the end, I would like to raise a middle finger to ESPN and another one to TSN, you managed to **** me off one too many times.

It's not ridiculous at all. Most Canadian tennis fans are thrilled that this country finally has some real talent to get excited about and WANT to watch Raonic and Bouchard's matches. Today's matches in particular were huge, especially for Raonic, who was gunning for his first ever Slam QF.

I don't know what on Earth you're thinking. It would be a travesty if TSN didn't switch to Raonic's match. Federer is my favourite player but I've watched him for over a decade now. As a Canadian tennis fan, I'm far more interested in watching the rise of our own players.

 

[Chico]

It's been getting worst year after year, but this morning, I just couldn't take it anymore. The broadcasting of all the various slams by both american and canadian TV network is so bad that I now much prefer watching WTF/1000/500 than those great tournaments. Not only do I have to put up with the american's obsession with the William sisters or John Isner and his fellow journeymens, but we (canadian's) now have to deal with TSN's new found obsession with Milos Raonic and Genie Bouchard. I can't express how frustrated I was this morning when watching a rather interesting Federer vs Gulbis match, it gets cut all of a sudden to switch over to Milos Raonic vs Marcel Granoller? Just how ridiculous can this get? Same thing happened at the Australian Open earlier this year. It doesn't make sense to me that when tennis greats like Nadal/Federer/Djokovic are playing, they're matches gets interrupted so they can show the local flavor instead of the better matches.

Now that my favorite slam (Wimbledon) will start soon, matches will again get cut short or start 10-15 minutes later so we can have a sit through with Carillo/Evert etc... about the Williams sister or to discuss some statistics that no one cares about. They're needs to be an alternative to watch slams than ESPN/TSN etc...Anyone that's remotely into tennis surely enjoys more the commentary free streaming than this awful broadcast.

So in the end, I would like to raise a middle finger to ESPN and another one to TSN, you managed to **** me off one too many times.

Indeed. I felt the same anger this morning. First Canadian TSN, instead showing 5th set of Federer-Gulbis, covered rather dull first set of Raonic - Granollers without even mentioning what is going on on other courts, like Raonic's match is the only one and there is no very important 5th set going on at the same time.
Than they switched to NBC who covered Novak's match until it was 4-1 in the 3rd and than they just moved to Sharapova-Stosur without even bothering to tell how Novak's match finished.
Not to mention that both often don't bother to show LIVE coverage but instead show us delayed tape on one match while it is interesting live match still going on.

Similar applies to say Olympics coverage which is quite pathetic.

Terrible unprofessional TV coverage in both cases without even caring or trying to be real professional and trying to give a bit better experience to tennis fans and followers. It is sad what has TV coverage turned into these days and we pay A LOT for it.

And than I am supposed to feel guilty when I look for "illegal" streams in order not to miss live interesting matches which "big" TVs could not be bothered to cover properly.

Makes me angry to even think about it.

 

[Chico]

Agreed.. pam shriver and mary carillo should be banned from anything tennis

This too. Why are those two still covering big tennis events and who in their right mind thinks they are doing a good job is beyond me.

 

[PennAlum]

ESPN s@cks. They show the Errani-Jankovic match rather than the Sloan Stephens - Halep match. ESPN3 also s#cks. They are showing Monfils -Garcia-Lopez 6-0 bagel rather than the competitive Murray - Verdasco competitive match. Guess I have to go to lshunter.

 

[dirtballer]

ESPN s@cks. They show the Errani-Jankovic match rather than the Sloan Stephens - Halep match. ESPN3 also s#cks. They are showing Monfils -Garcia-Lopez 6-0 bagel rather than the competitive Murray - Verdasco competitive match. Guess I have to go to lshunter.

In some cases ESPN and Tennis Channel have agreements as to who gets to cover which match. Tennis Channel may had rights to the Stephens match.

 

[sureshs]

Nothing wrong in the networks showing young up-coming stars like Raonic instead of Federer all the time.

 

[Ralph]

Agreed.. pam shriver and mary carillo should be banned from anything tennis

There is no need for your last three words