US Open Blackout On CBS Ends

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 5th September 2013

US Open Blackout On CBS Ends

epa03849807 Serena Williams of the US hits a return to Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain during their quarterfinals round match on the ninth day of the 2013 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 03 September 2013. The US Open runs through Monday 09 September, a 15-day schedule for the first time. EPA/JASON DECROW |

There will be no television blackout of the final rounds of the US Open in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas this weekend.

A deal has been reached between US Open broadcaster CBS and cable company Time Warner Cable, restoring CBS to three million television households in the three major cities affected.

The agreement, announced on Monday, came after TWC customers missed CBS’ Labor Day coverage of the US Open, including the match between Serena Williams and Sloane Stephens. The matches could be viewed online on USOpen.org as part of the tournament’s streaming coverage.

With the network restored on the cable company’s lineup, viewers will now have access to television coverage of the women’s semifinals on Friday, the men’s semis on Saturday, and the women’s and men’s finals on Sunday and Monday, respectively, as well as the start of the NFL season on that weekend.

The dispute, which was over the re-transmission fees TWC pays to carry CBS programming, had led to the network and affiliated channels being removed from the company’s offerings since August 2. CBS was reportedly demanding a doubling of the fees it receives per subscriber from TWC, in addition to negotiations over online broadcast rights.

Terms of the deal were not released. In a company memo, CBS said it will receive “fair compensation” from the new agreement and the ability to “monetize our content going forward on all the new, developing platforms that are right now transforming the way people watch television.”

A statement from TWC said, “While we certainly didn’t get everything we wanted, ultimately we ended up in a much better place than when we started.”

Coverage of the US Open is split between Tennis Channel, ESPN and CBS.

Topics: 10sballs, Espn, Sports, Tennis, Tennis Channel, US Open