ESPN added yet another feather to its growing tennis Grand Slam cap on Thursday, inking an 11-year deal with the USTA to televise the entire US Open tournament, beginning in 2015. After 46 years on CBS Sports, the Men's and Women's Semifinal and Final matches will move to cable on ESPN, which now owns the complete rights to three of the four Grand Slam tournaments the US Open, Wimbledon, and the Australian Open as well as a large chunk of the French Open.
I would submit to you fairly categorically that we expect the audience for the US Open to increase, not to decrease, ESPN President John Skipper said during a conference call in reference to the tournament's move from broadcast to cable. With all the platforms that we have digitally every match during the course of this agreement will be made available on ESPN, ESPN2, or ESPN3. Moving to ESPN allows an opportunity to reach more people across more platforms, and that's what we believe will happen.
The new deal, which is reportedly worth upwards of $770 million (according to SportsBusiness Journal) will push ESPN's current 100 hours of live US Open matches to more than 130 hours in 2015, including the addition of three full days of coverage during Labor Day weekend and the men's and women's Semis and Finals. ESPN will also benefit from the new US Open scheduling format set to begin in 2015, in which the women's and men's semifinal matches will be televised in primetime on Thursday and Friday, respectively. The Finals then take place the following Saturday and Sunday, giving a day of rest for all players before the final.
A Very Different Truck Compound: ESPN To Take Over the World Feed
In addition, ESPN will begin producing the world-feed telecast for the USTA in 2015, a task that has historically belonged to CBS. ESPN and CBS have long worked hand-in-hand in the truck compound at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, often sharing facilities and coordinating their production operations. That will all come to an end in 2015.
There will, of course, be some changes [in ESPN's production plan], said Skipper. CBS has done a fantastic job at providing a world feed. We have benefited from that. We appreciate that. In 2015, ESPN will become the provider of the world feed.
CBS failed to come to an agreement during its 60-day exclusive negotiating window, which ended at the end of April, according to USTA Executive Director/COO Gordon Smith. At that point, ESPN entered the equation and, with the new deal in place, will now take over as the head honcho of the sprawling Flushing truck compound in 2015.
Streaming Every Point From Every Court
The deal also includes the rights to live-stream every match from all 17 tournament courts on ESPN3 and simulcast the linear feed to the network's WatchESPN TV Everywhere offering. In recent years, USOpen.org has streamed every match from the six TV courts (Arthur Ashe Stadium, Louis Armstrong Stadium, the Grandstand, and Courts 11, 13, and 17), but ESPN is now guaranteeing that ESPN3 will carry every single point from all 17 courts.
On the first day of our discussions, the USTA asked us about the possibility of providing coverage of all 17 courts, said Skipper. There right now is what I hope will soon become an anachronistic phrase: they have six television courts. We were happy to give our answer pretty quickly that our intention during the course of this tournament is to make every one of those matches available, and we're excited by that.
This will necessitate addition of the necessary video-production infrastructure and camera complements to the remaining 11 courts, but Skipper stopped short of offering a specific timetable on when that will become a reality at the Tennis Center.
According to Skipper, these feeds will also be streamed via an ESPN video player on USOpen.org, which has streamed every tournament match for the past two years.
Tennis Channel Out of the Mix?
One aspect that has yet to be fleshed out is the role of Tennis Channel, which has sublicensed a smaller US Open package from ESPN in recent years. Skipper would not confirm that Tennis Channel will remain in the mix in 2015.
I have not had a chance to talk to [Chairman/CEO] Ken Solomon at the Tennis Channel yet, he said. We have a many-year relationship and a history of looking at whether there's mutual benefit for us to sublicense back and forth. We expect to have a conversation. I can't really comment on what we might do because we haven't had that conversation yet.
The Rain-Delay Question
Inclement weather has pushed the Men's Final from Sunday to Monday for five consecutive years. While ESPN has a bevy of platforms to offer, that Monday-night timeslot will be occupied by the opening week of network's marquee property, Monday Night Football, likely pushing the Final to ESPN2.
While Skipper said that ESPN does not have any concerns about rain delays or contingencies and that we and the USTA have a plan, the potential move to ESPN2 would likely be a blow to the tournament's exposure. And, barring the addition of a long-rumored roof over Arthur Ashe Stadium, the move would be a distinct possibility when the deal commences in 2015.
Certainly, we think the Final on ESPN would be fantastic, said STA Chairman/President Dave Haggerty. We also know that ESPN2 has great coverage as well. Given the choice, ESPN would be where we would want to be. They have many platforms, but again, that would be our hope.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
ESPN added yet another feather to its growing tennis Grand Slam cap on Thursday, inking an 11-year deal with the USTA to televise the entire US Open tournament, beginning in 2015. After 46 years on CBS Sports, the Men's and Women's Semifinal and Final matches will move to cable on ESPN, which now owns the complete rights to three of the four Grand Slam tournaments the US Open, Wimbledon, and the Australian Open as well as a large chunk of the French Open.
