Why Federer won't be on espn tonight(again)

[Kevin Patrick]

I thought this article was interesting. Apparently European TV has paid for the rights to show Federer's matches to the rest of the world & the tournament has scheduled his matches (outside of Espn's coverage window) at night per their request.

I also found this interesting:

"American TV does not pay to carry this event, but rather has a marketing deal in which the tournament pays to have its event on TV and is allowed to sell commercial time on the domestic telecasts."

I've never heard of that situation before, it truly is a sign of how insignificant tennis is in the US. TV networks always have to pay to show sporting events, not the other way around.

I've also read how much this tournament is struggling to break even. They are still paying off the fee for the new stadium.
As bad as we think tennis is in the US , it's probably going to get worse. In a few years, we'll be lucky to have any tv coverage.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/tenni...6424999.story?coll=la-headlines-sports-tennis

 

[rhubarb]

Ha. I assume the unnamed European TV channel is Sky, which has the rights to the TMS tournaments in the UK (and no doubt other markets too). They are not even broadcasting these late evening matches to us - probably because they're on at 4:30 am.

Many countries in Europe are even worse off and don't have any ATP coverage from IW at all, because Eurosport didn't buy the men's rights, just the women's.

 

[ferrari_827]

This sucks. I was really hoping to see Federer vs. Kiefer tonight.

 

[USCfan]

So who's going to be on?

 

[Fedubai]

Sharapova. Ugh.