All you people do is complain, complain, complain. Yes the original programming for The tennis channel could be better. No Question. But i keep seeing posts on here asking why the channel is not carrying these two tournaments and it is really very simple. LISTEN. THEY DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHTS TO SHOW THEM! Just like how the golf channel cant show any of the majors or any other events larger networks have the rights to. The channel is still in its infancy and you expect it to be like a network thats been around for 20 years! I also see people wondering if the network is not putting up the money needed. WRONG! Who do you think has more $$ and distribution, Fox Sports or Tennis Channel? Seriously.Of coarse the tennis channel wants to show this whole event, but Fox will outbid the tennis channel everytime. Unless you want to just see these 2 events and nothing else the rest of the year. The original programming is tough to watch i know, and it can be very frustrating. But in all honesty how many tournys and overall tennis would u see if the TC was not around? Pieces of the 4 majors and a few masters series events on fox? Last time i checked the TC will show i dont know 60 to 70 events including 3 of the 4 slams and most likely all 4 in 09, 8 of the 10 tier 1 womens events, all the atp masters events except indian wells and miami ( dont have domestic rights) Davis Cup, Fed Cup, Champions Series, World exhibitions ( Federer v Sampras), World Team Tennis and obviously most, (not all) of the wta and atp stops around the world throughout the year. (Oh and US Open series) What else do u want from a 5 year old network? They are trying to get more and more tennis each year and the reason the original programming is so poor is that they use most of their resources to buy rights to grand slams and other live tennis and so u end up with repeats of murphy. Think about it. While alot of people on here do raise good questions, and they should. Just think about how much more tennis you are seeing now than 10 years ago. I remember just seeing the 4 slams. I mean, how many nfl games do you see on nfl network ? And great live golf on golf channel? NHL network ?( all repeats) Critique all u want, but just think for a second before you ask the obvious.
of course TTC doesn't have the rights for showing matches not covered by FSN because of poor planning and poor negotiations on their behalf. cable companies do a lot of wheeling and dealing, even buying broadcasting rights from the competitor. for example, TTC and ESPN had alliances built just a week before the Oz Open for extended coverage and repeats, with revenue sharing agreements, etc.
you can't tell me that TTC couldn't sweeten a deal with either or both FSN and Butch Buchholz to show quarterfinal matches that FSN didn't bother to show, like federer vs acasuso, because of their "so called obligation" to show a rerun of SportScience. and they are showing the 129th rerun of Agassi: between the lines instead of the Venus vs Sveta or Davydenko vs Ancic matches!
what happened to getting OLN to pitch for revenues???
this is certainly a turn for the worst coverage of the Sony Ericsson Open, supposedly the 5th Grand Slam. Shame on everyone: Butch Buchholz for being so detached from expanding coverage, FSN for lack of commitment, IMG for laxed attitudes for the true tennis fans and TTC for POOR NEGOTIATION SKILLS!
the board should get rid of Ken Solomon and bring back Steve Bellamy.
i feel like going to their Union City, NJ broadcast center and demand a refund! HLOL!
OTOH, i think we should all cancel our sports packages, beef up our broadband lines to a T1 or T3, and subscribe to the atpmastersseries.tv for the rest of the year! HLOL
I just baked a cake to present to "The Tennis Channel" and the foxy FSN, LOL. I hope they like my surprise party cake. On top of this pretty cake there are colorful letters in pink, blue, yellow and purple saying: "hasta la vista and bye, bye". My visit lasted only a few days but it was long enough to realize that the Tennis Channel is not the place to find what I want and that is " Live Tennis Coverage", or at least taped coverage and FSN sucks big time.
Complain, complain, complain? Tennis channel is in his infancy? They don't have the rights to broadcast the Tennis Masters? Well, thats just fine and dandy then. Now, all I need to hear is that because the Tennis Channel has no rights and it's in his infancy the poor thing has no way to print out a simple message to inform present and would be subscribers that they won't have coverage of the "Sony Ericsson Tennis Tournaments". It's ok and we shouldn't be so demanding and complain. We should just pay an extra $20.00 to upgrade in hopes that the Tennis Channel surely will cover these games, right? Please, give me a brake.
coolmaccool; Thank You for Your good, well written and informative post. I am in total agreement with Your article.
I'm not going to blame the Tennis Channel for not carrying these two tournaments, but one of the networks should step up to provide the coverage. It can't be a very positive statement about the state of tennis to have two tournaments with the caliber of players entered in both, to pass through the year without many viewers. Compare general tennis coverage to golf where you have a tournament for men, women, seniors, and Europeans every single week. Should the USTA somehow be more involved? The organization wants to get people on the courts, yet you can't watch the best in the world play. Hey Roger, maybe Tiger found a way to watch your match.
thanks for commenting Ethellina.btw, Delskier, the USTA did/is getting involved. they pumped in a 'significant' investment in TTC, announced in dec 06. look up http://www.usta.com/news/fullstory.sps?inewsid=386077. my guess is it's in the millions. the USTA is also guilty of being laxed and out of touch with the greater population of tennis fans.like arlen kantarian, all these tournament owners and organizers care for are immediate results and profits, like how much revenue is generated with tour and local sponsors, exhibits by vendors, food concessions and ticket sales. all they care is profits: look what happened to the US Open. I was able to get a courtside seat for less than $150 back in the 1990. the same seat is now $895, which is obviously something the average joe, including myself, can't afford. supply and demand as they say. television coverage, rights and ad sales are secondary revenue streams that come later cuz of underwriting costs, so it's less of a concern for these tennis honchos.so all of us tennis fans who can't fly to places like miami and rely on tv coverage, are the oliver twists, begging for a little more tennis on our tv tubes.
I am very disappointed in the lack of coverage for the Sony Ericsson Open by The Tennis Channel. This is one of the premier tennis events in the US. How do you not give it proper coverage. No tier one tournament should be permitted to select a broadcaster that only has limited coverage or provides taped delayed coverage.
In northern Virigia we pretty much have Cox Cable. Some have Comcast. Friends who live in DC pretty much have Comcast. Either way it doesn't matter. FSN isn't a feature channel on either cable company's line-up of channels. Comcast who has a contract with FSN hasn't broadcasted any of the SE Open. The Tennis Channel's coverage doesn't start until 9:00PM, although the schedule on the SE Open website states that its coverage starts at 7:00PM with tape delayed coverage beginning after 12:00AM.
It is a shameful that we have missed spectacular matches due to poor coverage by ALL parties involved. I've not seen one women's match. The US is home to two of the top female tennis players in history (i.e. Venus and Serena Williams) yet unless they are playing in a major we never get to see them. As for the men, we've missed all the American men except Andy. I would love to see James Blake take on Nadal today. but, thanks to this truly messed up coverage most of us won't.
The Tennis Channel was supposed to be the missing link to providing quality tennis programming to tennis fans. Quite frankly they have come up way short of that goal. They certainly have fallen way short of increasing interest in the sport of tennis here in the US. Quite frankly if it weren't for the Williams sisters and Andy, I think tennis in this country would be dead. Poor coverage of track and field events has lead to the near death of that sports popularity in the US. Poor coverage of tennis will have the same effect.
This event had really good coverage when it was the Nasdaq. Why is the SE Open having such poor coverage. When you consider that SE is the primary sponsor of the WTA Tour it really makes no sense to me that better coverage couldn't be negotiated. Some people have blamed March Madness (i.e. NCAA Basketball Tournament). However, by the time this tournament begins March Madness is entering into the sweet 16 and pretty close to the elite 8. Which means fewer games being aired. Plus, CBS has a lock on all the mens tournament action, so what happened to ESPN and ESPN2. I can't believe bowling trumps tennis in overall interest. If ESPN and its affiliate stations are available go after a channel that everyone has like TBS, WGN, TNT or USA for weekday/weeknight coverage and then get one of the major networks to handle weekend coverage. Of course I have no problem with one station covering the whole event.
BTW, do any of you guys have reception issues with the Tennis Channel? I've issues with reception in the highrise I live in. Cox Cable says the Tennis Channel is one of the weaker broadcasting channels and is prone to interference in certain environments.
WHY am I subscribing to the Tennis Channel?? Coverage of US events is worse now than it was two years ago when it was hit & miss coverage on ESPN. I never knew I had it so good. FSN/Comcast San Francisco never broadcasts the Sony-Ericsson matches at the times on their own schedule (2:00 AM PST). The Tennis Channel always has the FSN broadcast info wrong. Why is Tennis Channel just showing one night match per night? We need to complain to the decision-makers. They don't read these message boards - here we're just whining to each other. Tennis Channel better make up for it with the Roland Garros or that's it, I'll cancel my subscription.
aarrrgggh! this FSN/MSG+ alliance on comcast is driving up the wall.
i'm going to blog this to FSN:
please FSN: yes, we all know you can outbid TTC. you're tape delaying the roger vs andy match for a stupid NY Islanders game, and preempting the zvonareva vs jankovic semifinal match. your specialty is team sports. please stick to baseball, hockey, whatever!!! PPPPLEEEASSSE don't get involved in tennis ANYMORE!!!now back to TTC issues...
you know guys, after much thought and research, i can only conclude one thing:please get rid of KEN SOLOMON!the f*&#$ing IMG and other tennis insiders (like the USTA???), got rid of steve bellamy and brought in this media "guru." yeah, right.solomon was brought in to take over and improve bellamy's creation. his "vast" experience in entertainment media apparently qualified him to take over TTC's operations, but he has little or NO experience with the business of sports and, worse, he's spread too thin in other cable and media ventures!goddammit! please replace him with someone who TRULY knows the business of sports, and not just run-of-the-mill entertainment and cable. how about a sean mcmanus, chet simmons, george bodenheimer, and others???all you who are complaining about TTC's poor programming should get your messages right and direct your gripes to the man at helm: ken solomon.and ken solomon, if you're reading this, apparently you can't chew and talk tennis and lifestyle at the same time. you're in charge of the ONLY tennis cable channel in the world, not just another cable channel about movies, interior designs, lifestyles, movies or tv reruns. this is supposed to be TTC!!! you're moving at snail's pace and running out of ideas to make this channel prosper, both financially and qualitatively.
if you can't improve your logistics and business models, GET OFF YOUR HIGH CHAIR AND LET SOMEONE ELSE DO THIS RIGHT!for the love of god, WILL SOMEONE PLEASE GET RID OF KEN SOLOMON??!!!now i'll have to wait until 12:30a for the tape delay, and be off the internet or other news to avoid a spoiler...
I paid for the atpmastersseries.tv! It was the only way to see all the matches on the stadium and grandstand courts at the Sony Ericsson Open, they even showed some of the womens matches and the commentary was a lot better. I couldn't believe that FSN cutoff the Roddick vs. Federer match at 4-3 in the 3rd!!! Arrrgh!
In its infancy? I understand the channel has not been around for very long, but it was just last year that I was able to see hours and hours of much of the tournaments, including Pacific Life, Dubai, Sony Ericsson, etc. on the Tennis Channel.
What I don't understand is, why does FSN bother to buy the rights to any of these tennis tournaments, then air very little of it, and when they do air it, we get bits and pieces of the matches. Fox may have more money to throw to these tournaments, but if the Tennis Channel is unable to compete for airing rights, its future looks bleak. While I am glad to be able to view tournaments such as the Davis Cup, those seem few and far between. How many No Strings and Center Court shows can a person watch!!!!
I had printed out the TV schedules for TC and FSN coverage. TC coverage was very minimal if at all. They repeated what was shown during the day, at one point.
As far as FSN they changed their coverage yesterday, Thurs. Their schedule was suppose to be 10am here on the west coast. I turn to that and they have decided to show baseball instead of Serenas semi final. Not that I'm a huge women's tennis fan but that match was a semi final for gods sake. So we ended up with MLB instead. FSN should get out of the tennis coverage business, and I use the phrase tennis coverage lightly here. It couldn't be worse. besides changing their schedules and pre-emptying planned coverage with some other sports coverage, they cut out in the middle of a match. Is this the way to promote tennis coverage and the sport ? What the heck is wrong with the ATP and WTA that they would let tennis "coverage" go to a network that they should know from prior history has no real interest in tennis at all.
This whole fiasco with lack of coverage (including TTC) is so pathetic, and unprofessional, esp. when we are all paying extra for what we thought and expected would and should be adequate coverage of our sport.
Don't feel bad, not only do I have the Tennis Channel, but also that FSN sports and trust me you didn't miss much. It was very dissappointing that they did not show the majority of the coverage of the Soney Ericsson. I got the TC because I thought that would assure me seeing all the tennis I wanted to see, apparently that's not true. You would think that they would save those old matches for when nothing good is on, but to show those matches when some good live tennis is available, stinks