US Open TV Rights Expected To Rise

Written by: Staff on 26th March 2013

US Open TV Rights Expected To Rise |

With the US Open forced into a corner on future prize money to the tune of a $50 million player payout by 2017, it is a sure thing that the price for television rights from 2014 and beyond is due for a sharp rise to pay all the new bills facing the USTA.

Sports Business Journal reports that while bidding has yet to begin, the current $20 million annual price tag with CBS is set to go much higher. “We have begun discussions with CBS,” said a federation spokesman, who added that talk of actually bringing the Flushing Meadows facility into the 21st century had been mooted by quiet discussion of an actual roof over the site’s monster showcase arena. “We are exploring a roof and want to have a roof, but I can’t say by 2017 we will have one.”

Discussions with cable carriers and international coverage and other media will follow shortly.

There has been no word so far from the CBS network which has called the scheduling shots at the event for decades and is responsible for putting into place the detested “Super Saturday” format which will be dead and buried from 2015.

Despite worldwide European sporting icons like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal dominating the game for the past decade, interest in the sport is declining in the US while rising in much of the rest of the world. Tennis consistently rates well below mainstream US sports like NFL and baseball with no signs of improvement thanks to no American man inside the ranking top 10 and none on the horizon.

©Daily tennis news wire

Topics: Cbs, Sports, Tennis News, tennnis, US Open, US sports, Usta