Why isn't Tennis on OTA TV and Radio?

[TTMR]

Seems bizarre to me that one must sign up for a litany of paid streaming services to watch tennis (ie. one for ATP, one for slams, one for WTA). No "all in one place" options. Cable you just have to hope a more important sport isn't on at the same time or you have to subscribe to all the subchannels and still might not get it. No terrestrial radio station, AM or FM, that I know of, provides tennis coverage. Tennis is an expensive sport to watch for a consumer, even though the broadcast rights for tennis are surely way less expensive than the four major western sports and soccer (and probably golf as well, which is still on OTA networks). NBC and CBS used to carry select events but that seems to have gone by the wayside (in my country I'd have to have cable to get those anyway).

"Alternative" free streams are nearly impossible to find these days compared to 5 or 10 years ago, likely due to greatly increased copyright enforcement.

More popular, greatly more expensive (from a broadcast rights standpoint) sports are still cheaper for a fan of those sports to access than tennis. Why? Is it because tennis is still considered a rich niche? Rolex doesn't pay enough for ad time?

 

[heninfan99]

The major tournaments seem to be independent. This was good during Covid because the French Open decided the show should go on without needing permission from others. The drawback is difficulty in consolidating TV coverage or even rules governing tie breaks(but that might be a good thing in the end because you can clearly see which style works best).

It's okay. I sign up for two cable packages during the slams and then cancel in between.

 

[Benf15harp]

Tennis should be exclusively on espn 8 “the ocho”

 

[TTMR]

The major tournaments seem to be independent. This was good during Covid because the French Open decided the show should go on without needing permission from others. The drawback is difficulty in consolidating TV coverage or even rules governing tie breaks(but that might be a good thing in the end because you can clearly see which style works best).

It's okay. I sign up for two cable packages during the slams and then cancel in between.

That is an idea. The drawback would be the unpleasant hours spent on the phone with the cancellation and billing departments of your local telecom monopoly.

Still, logically, it should be much cheaper for a person to watch tennis than the NFL or NBA--based on the value of the broadcast rights and what people would be willing to pay--but the opposite is true: tennis is more expensive.

The rich niche argument might hold true, but then golf is the defining country club sport and it is very accessible to watch compared to tennis.