After splashing the cash to secure 10 years worth of United States coverage rights to the French Open, the second Grand Slam of the tennis calendar and the only on clay, TNT Sports (owned by Warner Brothers Discovery) is planning an innovative new coverage style to their coverage of Europe’s premier tennis event in Paris on the red clay.
The French Open has been the most neglected of the four grand slams in U.S. TV Coverage, the tournament is lacking the “prestige and tradition” of Wimbledon the eyes of many American viewers, and the overnight time zone of the Australian Open on ESPN, the “Happy Slam”, and the marquee US Open, which of course takes place in New York with the biggest matches in primetime viewing hours have always gotten the lions share of attention, while devoted fans of the sport still continued to tune in to watch the best players battle on clay, following the career of the King of Clay Rafael Nadal and other historic moments in Paris over the last two decades.
Part of the coverage gap for the French Open can be chalked up to the fact that American players have generally underperformed on clay, and it’s a surface that very few American recreational tennis players have access to, the majority of tennis in the United States takes place on hard courts, with green clay, not red clay, considered to the be second surface, unlike Europe and Latin America.
That’s not to say Americans haven’t made headlines in Paris, Serena Williams and Monica Seles were notable winners, Sofia Kenin made a shock run to the 2020 final, and Andre Agassi last won a singles title for US Men at the tournament in 1999.
ESPN and NBC split the coverage rights from 2008 to 2015, a period that saw Nadal dominate on the surface (while frequently battling with fan favorite Roger Federer), Nadal’s upset loss to Robin Soderling also happened during this period and I distinctly remember NBC’s weekend coverage of the match receiving significant attention.
The premium cable sports channel Tennis Channel took over rights from 2016 and despite providing dedicated and comprehensive coverage of the tournament, going from the largest cable network, and a major (free tv) broadcast network in NBC, was a big blow for the French Open’s brand and visibility, despite the fact the NBC premium Peacock streaming service that shows the Premier League in the United States also took some of the French Open coverage. Tennis Channel’s dedicated coverage of the ATP and WTA Tours day in and day out is admirable, but it hasn’t translated into significant ratings, and the Grand Slam tennis coverage on ESPN regularly achieves multiples more in terms of viewership and national visibility compared to even the Masters level tournaments on Tennis Channel like Indian Wells and Miami. Tennis is also a bit unique in that at least half of the viewing audience only watches Grand Slams, and will only do occasional check ins on the ATP/WTA Tour unless there is a tournament nearby or at a time zone that is suitable for them. Tournaments in Europe and Asia are regularly played at time zones when the majority of American viewers are at work or school, making them “out of sight, out of mind”. This red zone coverage and more interviews may suit this audience well.
TNT Sports is a new coverage partner for the tournament, TNT is the home of NHL Hockey, the US National soccer team, the early rounds of March Madness College Basketball, and perhaps most notably their long running coverage of the NBA with the Inside the NBA program and live games weekly during the season and playoffs.
Now they will try to put a new spin on tennis coverage, they have hired notable names as on air broadcast talent including Venus Williams, and they are planning a “red zone style” simulcast of the early rounds of the French Open. This coverage during the tournament will highlight the most compelling highlights and tense action during the busy and chaotic early rounds of a Grand Slam where more than a dozen matches will be on court at the same time. “truTV’s The Rally at Roland-Garros will offer fans whiparound coverage including a blend of studio analysis and live match commentary capturing the best moments from multiple courts each day.”
This coverage style is notably used in football, both American football in the NFL where Sunday afternoon games are broadcast on NFL Redzone, which highlights the biggest plays and all scoring plays, and in the UEFA Champions and Europa League, both in Europe and on the CBS Sports/Paramount Plus Golazo show, which covers simultaneous European night games as they happen, while NBC Peacock has a Premier League blitz goals show on weekends when there’s multiple 3 PM kickoffs in England. NBC also took this approach for the Olympics, which has the most events happening at the same time of any major sporting event.
This style of coverage is meant to keep the shorter attention spans of the social media generation engaged, and perhaps gives tennis fans an opportunity to follow more matches, and not be stuck with the early round drubbings we often see in Grand Slams, where top 10 players will dominate their lower ranked counterparts, winning sets with bagels or breadsticks in short order. ESPN’s tennis coverage has frequently been criticized for covering these blowout matches, while a compelling four or five set battle is taking place on an outer court. TNT Sports will perhaps be aiming to change this approach. The NFL Red Zone coverage has kept the NFL the sporting code leader in the United States, contributed to the growth of the game globally and has been downright entertaining, similar to the Golazo show on CBS Sports which is regularly praised as great fun.
Tennis Channel’s “Courtside” is another example of this style of coverage, the network frequently takes advantage of its coverage rights to the ATP and WTA Tours to rotate the matches shown on the linear cable network, cutting in at real time to follow tiebreaks and other key moments when multiple tournaments are taking place around the world.
Adding more live interviews during matches and new camera angles is another innovation announced by TNT Sports, and Warner Brothers will be using the HBO Max platform for streaming, while using the resources they have in Europe at Eurosport, the home EU broadcaster for the French Open, a tournament they have covered for a long time. As both European and American voices will be heard during the coverage.
Year one may see some growing pains for TNT Sports/HBO Max, but with the experience of Eurosport available to help and tennis a sport that is somewhat easy to broadcast on television screens, you have to be optimistic for what TNT has planned, if nothing else, it’s another reason to watch the two weeks of the 2025 French Open.
The details for the 2025 French Open coverage in the United States are according to Sports Business Journal: “TNT will carry linear coverage of key matches from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. U.S. ET during rounds 1-4, then the quarters, semis and finals of men’s and women’s singles, and finals of men’s, women’s and mixed doubles. TruTV will have men’s and women’s round 4 singles and the doubles semis, plus select simulcasts. And Max will have it all — live and on-demand matches throughout the qualifying and main draws, including a preset, four-window multi-view option.”
Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
