Tennis Channel Grabs French Open Rights From ESPN

[marc45]

http://www.tennisnow.com/Blogs/NET-...nnel-Secures-Cable-Rights-for-French-Ope.aspx

Tennis Channel will now be the go-to place for tennis fans to watch more live action on the terre battue courts of Paris.

The U.S. cable channel announced it has secured all pay-tv rights in the U.S. for Roland Garros also known as the French Open. The channel will offer 80% of live match coverage after it acquired additional match blocks it previously sublicensed to ESPN. "Tennis Channel's partnership with Roland Garros, our first major, has evolved to the point where this year we'll be the streamlined on-air and online place to find the bulk of the competition," Ken Solomon, president, Tennis Channel said in a statement. "This is a significant initiative for our network: this year's Paris coverage will offer more live hours, outer-court encores, nightly replays and a schedule with complete 24-hour coverage on majority of the fortnight.

Roland Garros is in the process of expanding, with new facilities, widened tournament grounds, increased TV-court access and other updated amenities. We're in this for the long term and are scaling our coverage right there with them." Tennis Channel will devote nearly 315 hours of coverage during the May 22-June 5 event in the deal that will run through 2023. Sinclair Broadcast Group recently purchased Tennis Channel for $350 million dollars. ESPN last year decided not to renew its coverage rights after 13 years. The network cited decreasing viewing ratings since it was unable to get the time slots or matches it wanted based on it's agreement with the event. NBC will continue to show live matches especially on the weekends, including the finals.

 

[MasturB]

This isn't surprising. And espn never owed the rights they only leased it from TC.

TC just decided not to renew it .

 

[Booger]

Well that's disappointing. The only way to get the tennis channel in my area is by paying for some ultra premium channel package that costs $140/mo and is 99.9% infomercials.

 

[Chadillac]

Id pay like $5 to watch it on the interent. Espn3 does a hell of a job, cant blame them with the ratings the french brings. Its like slow tennis gets slower, tune in.

 

[RSH]

Well, that's depressing.

 

[Chadillac]

Tennis channel needs to go independant like others are doing, bypassing cable. Im sure their streams wont be as hard to watch as the ufc/nfl if they choose to go that route. Can still watch it, but is it worth watching? Espn's stance

 

[Djokodal Fan]

Id pay like $5 to watch it on the interent. Espn3 does a hell of a job, cant blame them with the ratings the french brings. Its like slow tennis gets slower, tune in.

If espn does not carry FO, then espn3 won't have it either. This is a real bummer.

 

[Chadillac]

If espn does not carry FO, then espn3 won't have it either. This is a real bummer.

Not trying to poke the bear since your a djok fan, but will this be the year djok gets his career slam. Yet its treated like the tree in the woods that no one hears fall.

 

[Raindogs]

Tennis will increasingly be a niche sport as attention spans are rewired to be shorter than that of a fruit fly.
ESPN knows that the days of the casual sports fan watching the slam semis and finals are virtually over, a bygone era that won't come back.
Seeing a the story of a match unfold over three to four hours is virtually unthinkable as entertainment to most people these days.

 

[FedEx23]

I wish TTC would offer a two-week package to watch the French Open. I don't want to have to buy Tennis Channel Everywhere since I did that last year and it was really hard to cancel.

 

[Vanhool]

Tennis will increasingly be a niche sport as attention spans are rewired to be shorter than that of a fruit fly.
ESPN knows that the days of the casual sports fan watching the slam semis and finals are virtually over, a bygone era that won't come back.
Seeing a the story of a match unfold over three to four hours is virtually unthinkable as entertainment to most people these days.

In fairness to the casual sport fan, the matches used to not take so long either.

 

[tennis4me]

Sad day. I cut the cords long time ago. Only watch tennis via ESPN3 mostly. Not a fan of Tennis Channel and it's pricing structure. I wish USTA would do more for availability of Tennis viewing for spectators in US. Oh well.

 

[Djokodal Fan]

Not trying to poke the bear since your a djok fan, but will this be the year djok gets his career slam. Yet its treated like the tree in the woods that no one hears fall.

OK bro. Have a good day. Atleast speak something related to the topic on hand instead of trying to pretnd like trolling.

 

[tennisaddict]

I get both tennis channel and ESPN. I am covered

 

[Chadillac]

OK bro. Have a good day. Atleast speak something related to the topic on hand instead of trying to pretnd like trolling.

I dont think you understood what i said. Djok will be the favorite at his years FO, do you think it will lose any prestige since no major network will be covering it and ratings will be at least half of what they were in the past (very bad which is why espn is dropping them)?

Kind of unfair to djok, i think he gets it this year, but like my tree analogy very few will see it.

 

[tacou]

dang that stanks

 

[ultradr]

I get both tennis channel and ESPN. I am covered

you mean you still watch cable tv?

 

[VexlanderPrime]

TC rocks but sad to see ESPN lose the mid day matches....

 

[VexlanderPrime]

Tennis will increasingly be a niche sport as attention spans are rewired to be shorter than that of a fruit fly.
ESPN knows that the days of the casual sports fan watching the slam semis and finals are virtually over, a bygone era that won't come back.
Seeing a the story of a match unfold over three to four hours is virtually unthinkable as entertainment to most people these days.

There are no match stories. Matches are merely a series of 1s and 0s forming a larger equation, the inevitable solution for which is always: Djokovic.

 

[BreakPoint]

Id pay like $5 to watch it on the interent. Espn3 does a hell of a job, cant blame them with the ratings the french brings. Its like slow tennis gets slower, tune in.

The ratings should improve now that we're in the post-Nadal era.

 

[BreakPoint]

you mean you still watch cable tv?

Cable is the only way to go. No streaming hiccups and much easier to skip commercials on the DVR.

 

[Chadillac]

Cable is the only way to go. No streaming hiccups and much easier to skip commercials on the DVR.

Im streaming on unbuntu and it looks same as cable (7bars), windows doesnt stream nearly as well for some reason. You can also dvr on computers (a dvr is like a bad computer).

Cable is a dinosaur, everyone is moving ala carte since congress forces us to buy 100 channels we never watch.

 

[mikeeeee]

It's pretty easy to find a free stream online for anything. I'm watching the Nadal / Nishikori match at Indian Wells right now and it was on the first page of a google search.

 

[veroniquem]

Ouf good thing I've subscribed to Tennis Channel +

 

[BreakPoint]

Im streaming on unbuntu and it looks same as cable (7bars), windows doesnt stream nearly as well for some reason. You can also dvr on computers (a dvr is like a bad computer).

Cable is a dinosaur, everyone is moving ala carte since congress forces us to buy 100 channels we never watch.

Yeah, but is there a skip commercials button on your computer?

Also, you still have to pay to access tennis on the Internet or find an illegal stream. And I often have stuttering, freezing, video/audio timing mismatch, poorer video quality, etc. when I stream.

 

[Service Ace]

Ratings are going to take a NOSEDIVE. 90% of us will only be able to watch the finals now. Terrible news

 

[Chadillac]

Yeah, but is there a skip commercials button on your computer?

Also, you still have to pay to access tennis on the Internet or find an illegal stream. And I often have stuttering, freezing, video/audio timing mismatch, poorer video quality, etc. when I stream.

Im on att fios with an ac1900 router. I have no lag, its better than cable (pic quality for me) and i get to choose which court i watch. Another nice thing about att is you get free espn3 with it, they cover all the matches and its legal (aside for davis cup, but who cares about that).

The biggest thing is only the main espn stream has the bad announcers, sometimes they dont even have announcers. You also dont goto commercials, get to see players on the change overs and the camera man likes to find women in the stands

 

[BreakPoint]

Im on att fios with an ac1900 router. I have no lag, its better than cable (pic quality for me) and i get to choose which court i watch. Another nice thing about att is you get free espn3 with it, they cover all the matches and its legal (aside for davis cup, but who cares about that).

The biggest thing is only the main espn stream has the bad announcers, sometimes they dont even have announcers. You also dont goto commercials, get to see players on the change overs and the camera man likes to find women in the stands

I thought only Verizon had FIOS?

Also, you don't have to subscribe to AT&T U-verse to be able to access ESPN3? You mean they let you access ESPN3 for free by just having AT&T Internet ISP service?

Actually, many people (including me) care a lot about Davis Cup. It's the most exciting kind of tennis there is because there's so much crowd involvement and you sometimes see players do things playing for their country that you never see them be able to do on the regular tour. That's why you often see unfathomable results in Davis Cup.

 

[Chadillac]

I thought only Verizon had FIOS?

Also, you don't have to subscribe to AT&T U-verse to be able to access ESPN3? You mean they let you access ESPN3 for free by just having AT&T Internet ISP service?

Actually, many people (including me) care a lot about Davis Cup. It's the most exciting kind of tennis there is because there's so much crowd involvement and you sometimes see players do things playing for their country that you never see them be able to do on the regular tour. That's why you often see unfathomable results in Davis Cup.

Att fios is available in certain area's. The guy who put mine in (needs a new cable from the pole) couldnt get it at his house.

You are correct, with att as your isp you can watch it for free, no need for cable. You cannot access espn1 and espn2, but if you know someone with cable, have them make you an email account, sign in with it and you can watch.

Espn 1 and 2 have drm (espn 3 doesnt), so if your using linux your have to add a hardware abstraction layer for it to work. Cant watch monday night football otherwise.

Thats what makes this suck so much, since they both show matches live and achieve them.

 

[newpball]

Sad day. I cut the cords long time ago. Only watch tennis via ESPN3 mostly. Not a fan of Tennis Channel and it's pricing structure. I wish USTA would do more for availability of Tennis viewing for spectators in US. Oh well.

They have no control.

For any 1000, 500 or 250 events, the rights are owned by the ATP and exploited by ATP media.
Slams are not handled by the ATP.

 

[MLRoy]

"Yay," she said sarcastically. That means no ESPN3, and a dozen matches to choose from and, worse, more Mary Carillo! NO ONE deserves that.
I hate that the tv networks will only show the American player matches, even when they suc(h), rather than a potentially more interesting match between two non-Americans. And that horrible, horrible commentary, aside from carillo. Brett what's his name braying like a mule. Austin & Davenport pointing-out the obvious. That new Elite moocher, Steve Whatshisface, sounding too energetic and self-satisfied...

 

[Stretchy Man]

Well that's disappointing. The only way to get the tennis channel in my area is by paying for some ultra premium channel package that costs $140/mo and is 99.9% infomercials.

Tennis channel plus is only $70 a year. You won't get every match but you get a heck of a lot of tennis for bugger all. Officially only available in the US but there are easy ways around this.

 

[Chadillac]

You cant buy it standalone though. I dont watch much tv (except sports), why should i be paying $90 a month just for the tennis channel?

 

[Stretchy Man]

I have it standalone. All you need is reasonable broadband connection.

 

[Chadillac]

Thanks, i misread your post. $89.99 here for a year, to expensive for the french since i can get every other match from espn3.

 

[Tony48]

Just as long as it's not NBC.