According to the Sports Business Journal, ESPN will no longer continue its French Open sub-license from the Tennis Channel. With this, ESPN’s run of showing coverage of all four Grand Slams has ended at seven years. NBC Sports, with its growing channel NBCSN, is now favorite to take over the French Open along with the Tennis Channel, though talks between the two have not begun yet.
ESPN Loses The Second Leg Of The Grand Slam
Back in 2003, ESPN started airing the French Open on ESPN2. First, it operated on its own, then it began operating under the sub-license from Tennis Channel. According to the report, ESPN was more willing to relinquish the rights rather than losing them. It was due to the lack of viewers that made the Worldwide Leaders in Sports open to dropping them. The numbers showed that on ESPN2, the French Open averaged nearly the same amount of viewers as Mike & Mike In The Morning and fewer viewers than popular sports debate show ESPN First Take.
ESPN Still Dominating Coverage
Despite losing the French, ESPN clearly still has its mark on the tennis universe on television. It has had exclusive coverage of the Australian Open since 1984. It’s also had coverage of Wimbledon and the US Open since 2003 and 2004 respectively. Wimbledon has been exclusively on ESPN since 2012 and just earned exclusive coverage of the US Open this year.
The Worldwide Leader In Sports even dominates outside of the Slams. It has had exclusive coverage of the Emirates US Open Series since last year. It also has coverage of Masters 1000s, ATP World Tour 500s, the WTA Finals, and the ATP World Tour Finals. ESPN shows coverage of the two American Masters 1000s/Premiers in the spring, Indian Wells and Miami, on it’sing network, ESPN3, and begins television coverage during the quarterfinals