ESPN2 has dropped from its lineup three of the world’s top non-Grand Slam tennis tournaments, with the events shifting to the less-visibleFox Sports Net.
The combined Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and ATP Tour stops in Miami and Indian Wells, Calif., as well as the ATP season-ending championships, had been broadcast on ESPN2 since the 1980s.
The network was planning to offer fewer hours of coverage this year, though, in part because of scheduling conflicts. The drop-off in coverage fueled the move to Fox Sports Net, which has not broadcast the sport nationally for several years.
The move also means the matches will be in front of fewer viewers. ESPN2 is in 96 million homes, while Fox Sports Net is in 65 million homes, though for the tennis events, the network has committed to reaching 80 million homes by striking programming deals with other regional sports networks, like Comcast SportsNet.
The Pacific Life Open will
migrate to Fox Sports Net,
along with two other tourneys.
However, the RSNs that make up Fox Sports Net can choose not to carry the tennis. The Sony Ericsson Open, for example, predicted it would be on 75 percent of the FSN systems.
“It was just a matter of available hours across the North American platform,” said Adam Barrett, tournament director of the Miami event. ESPN2 offered 12 hours of coverage, down from 18 hours last year, Barrett said, because of college basketball scheduling conflicts.
The Sony Ericsson Open is scheduled for March 24-April 6.
Fox Sports Net, by contrast, Barrett said, will do about 30 hours of coverage of the Miami event.
The FSN deals for the three tourneys were negotiated by ATP Media, which controls the TV rights for the sport’s top 10 events outside the Slams. The ATP did not return calls seeking comment.
The Miami and Indian Wells tourneys, the largest in the world by attendance after the Slams, had gotten on ESPN2 through time buys in the past. Fox Sports Net worked out a barter agreement under which the ATP will produce the events and FSN will get a cut of the ad revenue. No rights fee money will be changing hands, sources said.
ESPN2 is still committed to broadcasting eight of the nine tournaments on the U.S. Open Series this summer, as well as maintaining coverage of the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon.
“We were in negotiations and could not come to a mutually beneficial agreement,” an ESPN spokesman said of the three events. “There were a number of factors, including scheduling.”
The FSN agreements, which have yet to be signed, are for one year. FSN plans to offer 16 matches from the Indian Wells tournament, the Pacific Life Open. It plans more extensive coverage on its local RSN, FSN West, from the tournament, which is scheduled for March 10-23. It will cover fewer matches from Miami because CBS is planning to air the finals of that tournament.
