Tennis On T .V. Schedule Strange During Miami

Written by: Staff on 28th March 2014

Sony Open tennis tournament on Key Biscayne, in Miami, Florida

Tennis On T .V. Schedule Strange During Miami

epa04142476 Li Na (R) of China serves the ball to Caroline Wozniacki (R) of Denmark during a quarter final match at the Sony Open tennis tournament on Key Biscayne in Miami, Florida, USA, 26 March 2014. Na won the match. EPA/ERIK S. LESSER |

Television coverage of Miami has been the subject of controversy over the past week, attracting scrutiny of the rights deals covering the tournament.

Many complained on Wednesday when Roger Federer’s defeat to Kei Nishikori was carried only on tape-delay in the United States. ESPN2 showed the first two matches of the day live, Agnieszka Radwanska vs. Dominika Cibulkova and Novak Djokovic vs. Andy Murray, and Tennis Channel broadcast the first evening match between Na Li and Caroline Wozniacki. However, the Federer vs. Nishikori match was shown on ESPN2 at 1 am.

“Just read Fed[erer] lost a close one and it wasn’t aired on any network in the [United S]tates? How is that possible?” said Lindsay Davenport on Twitter.

The match was, however, streamed online for those with access to ESPN3 or Tennis TV.

Earlier in the tournament, it was women’s matches that went unshown — on television or online. Only 26 WTA matches from Miami are broadcast, meaning that many early-round encounters, including ones involving Maria Sharapova and Na Li, were not taped.

WTA CEO Stacey Allaster, told the New York Times it was “an economic discussion.”

Premier mandatory tournaments like Miami are required to provide coverage of 20 matches. While Indian Wells paid for 55 women’s matches to be televised, Miami is not willing to do more than the minimum.

“It’s always my belief that the international broadcaster should broadcast as much as they can generate,” Miami tournament director Adam Barrett told the publication. “They are the ones that benefit from the profit side.

“We don’t get any more money if they produce more matches and sell more matches.”

There is no WTA equivalent of the ATP Tennis Properties Limited, which spends a reported $20 million a year and produces its own coverage of tournaments. Instead, most of the WTA’s international TV rights are handled by digital sports company Perform, which sells and distributes programming to broadcasters. In the United States, the WTA has an agreement with Tennis Channel to broadcast its Premier tournaments.

To obtain more matches, Perform must pay Tennis Properties Limited to televise them at a cost of $8,000 to $9,000 per match, according to the report.

The WTA’s right agreements with Perform and Tennis Channel run for another two years. The ATP agreement with Tennis Channel is for one more year. The length of its agreement with ESPN, meanwhile, is not specified.

Content via Larson wire service.

Topics: Andy Murray, Atp, djokovic, Espn2, Federer, Kei Nishikori, Li Na, Miami, Radwanska, Sony, Sports, Tennis News, Tv Schedule, Wozniacki, Wta

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10sBalls_com says:

March 28, 2014 at 8:27 am

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