NBC Earns 1.8 Overnight For Federer's French Open Men's Title

Federer Earns Record-Tying 14th Career Grand Slam Title With French Open Win

SCHEDULING RACQUET: In L.A., Diane Pucin reported NBC "gambled and lost on its choice of which French Open men's semifinal to televise Friday." NBC had the "choice of broadcasting either" Federer-Juan Martin Del Potro or Soderling-Fernando Gonzalez, and the network chose the Soderling-Gonzalez match "because of timing." NBC Sports Dir of Communications Adam Freifeld said that the net "decided it had a better ... chance of getting a completed match into its window with Soderling and Gonzalez." Pucin noted NBC "had no input in the French Open schedule for Friday" (L.A. TIMES, 6/6). In N.Y., Richard Sandomir noted NBC's "sharing of the men's semifinal rights with the Tennis Channel resulted" in the scheduling issues, and Tennis Channel Friday carried the Federer-Del Potro match on tape at 4:00pm ET, "about five hours after it began." Tennis Channel Chair & CEO Ken Solomon: "They get one semi and we get the other." Sandomir noted NBC aired the Soderling-Gonzalez match "in a condensed form, on tape delay," from 10:00am-1:00pm, and Freifeld said that if the Soderling-Gonzalez match "had ended before NBC's 10 a.m. window began, the network had received permission from the Tennis Channel to carry the Federer match." Freifeld: "We didn't have the rights to the second match, but the Tennis Channel would have let us do it" (N.Y. TIMES, 6/6). On Long Island, Neil Best wondered why Tennis Channel could not air the Federer match live. Best: "Because NBC has rights to the 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. window in ALL TIME ZONES" (NEWSDAY.com, 6/5). In Chicago, Bob Foltman noted Freifeld "couldn't explain why the network didn't explain the circumstances to viewers or mention that the Federer match would be shown on tape delay later Friday afternoon on the Tennis Channel." The Federer-Del Potro match by 1:00pm CT was "locked into a fifth and deciding set," but NBC "ended its broadcast promptly at 1 p.m. with no update or mention of Federer's match" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 6/6).

Federer's Match Against Del Potro Not Shown Live On NBC, Tennis Channel Or ESPN2

FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT: Best noted NBC Sports President Ken Schanzer Friday "had a spirited, 15-minute give and take" with Sirius XM's Chris Russo regarding the semifinal scheduling. Schanzer said that NBC "attempted to get the French Open people to flip the order of the semifinals or perhaps alter their start times." But it "turns out French fans and French TV are higher priorities for the French Open than are the needs of a network in the United States trying to squeeze tennis between 'Today' and soap operas" (NEWSDAY.com, 6/5). SI.com's Wertheim wrote, "You understand it at some level from NBC's perspective. The numbers are what they are, and they're not going to preempt 'The Today Show' for Robin Soderling-Fernando Gonzalez. It is unfortunate that tennis fans didn't have an outlet. I think tape delay is a pretty dated concept these days, and it was frustrating that a major semifinal was not broadcast at all on American television" (SI.com, 6/5). In DC, Tim Lemke wrote NBC "should not even bother trying to televise the French Open except on Saturdays and Sundays," as it is "too hard for a network to show live sports on a weekday where there is other programming that conflicts with it" (WASHINGTONTIMES.com, 6/5).

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