Poll: Did You See Federer vs. Roddick on Thursday? Probably Not

Very good article.

Tennis fans should NOT have to PAY to see matches; I usually opt for some Eurosport free / pilfered coverage on channelsurfing.net OR I watch the scoreboard – not the most exciting way to follow tennis but sometimes it’s the only way to know what is happening in a match. At least I can see stats if not actual shots – GRRR.

I’m in Canada and tomorrow morning TSN is airing this match; I’ll be watching of course, but it won’t be nearly as thrilling as seeing it unfold LIVE.

April 3rd, 2008 at 9:52 pm

Yes, is it pathetic that American fans even with Tennis Channel (like me) could not watch this historic match! I already wrote on Tennis Channel web site that their coverage of tennis is terrible: they do not show major ATP tournaments (like Dubai, Indian Wells and Miami) while showing endless re-runs of 40 year old Todd Martin playing some masters matches! And don’t forget that we are paying for Tennis Channel! Yes, I don’t know how is American tennis is going to progress with such TV coverage.

April 3rd, 2008 at 10:11 pm

You really can’t blame the Tennis Channel for what major events they cover. They bid what they can bid based on the advertisements they can sell. The bottom line is that networks like Fox and ESPN just have a whole bunch more money. They sometimes actually outbid The Tennis Channel for an event and then not even show it! The best arrangements for those situations are shared coverage like The Tennis Channel has brokered with ESPN in the past. That is a win for the sport of tennis and the fans.

April 3rd, 2008 at 11:22 pm

Poll result: NO, couldn’t watch :(.
And I am in Bay Area. I just had the live score page on and was coming to check on the result from time to time. I can’t even begin to imagine what tennis fans lost in not being able to see this match on TV. Shame.

April 4th, 2008 at 12:45 am

I’m so glad someone’s actually talking about this. FSN has been horrible here in texas with these 2 tournaments. Sometimes they didn’t even show any matches! I got to see the first two sets of Roger vs. Andy before FSN put on some fishing show when it was 3-3 in the third set. It’s so pathetic.

April 4th, 2008 at 1:34 am

Yes… I am an American. And, I’ll say it’s entirely pathetic. Our culture has little taste for great tennis including a great legendary tennis star, Roger Federer. What a match that should have been seen by America on the home turf. Especially since he had played a fine American player, Roddick! Idiots we are. I’m dropping that stupid Tennis channel if they can’t carry it in the future. What a waste. I suppose American baseball is all anyone is interested in now. i.e. FOX sports.

April 4th, 2008 at 1:48 am

Richard:

Very good article. I see that we’re neighbors or fellow Floridians. I have been fortunate this week to see some matches on FSN and some on the Tennis Channel, and the Fed/Roddick match was shown delayed so that the rained out match of which you wrote could have been broadcasted.

I agree with ChipNCharge, the Tennis Channel is handcuffed by the oligopolists, ESPN and/or FSN. TC’s problem is that of insufficient funds and sponsors, which flock to the other two networks for air time and a larger viewing population concerning their products. These two seem to like playing games and always end up putting a wrench in the tennis coverage negotiations. Their ‘dog in the manger’ game ends up hurting the end-user, we the tennis fans, who have to pay for these networks which are included as part of our sports cable packages. What’s even more ludicrous, is the fact that we are not even given a choice as to which sports networks we want — they’re just part of the cable package, with a take it or leave it attitude.

I think that if there were to be a boycott of the live ATP streaming matches via the internet, this might discourage the practice by the ATP to extract as much money as they possibly can from the tennis fans. But, it would be very difficult to get this type of cooperation from the tennis fans since they are at the mercy of the TV networks and the ATP. Perhaps the FTC should be notified of this scam through our Congressman on a local level.

April 4th, 2008 at 2:56 am

I just pay $15 for a whole tournament, and the quality is fine

April 4th, 2008 at 4:16 am

I’m currently down in Ecuador, and was able to watch the game without a problem on ESPN latino :)

now if they would only show hockey….

April 4th, 2008 at 8:04 am

FSNY in New York has become MSG+. They could not have done a worse job. They allotted two hours per match and cut off coverage if it ran over. Last night instead of showing the Roddick Federer match live and in full they showed it edited on tape delay at 10:00 PM. MSG+ carried the Islanders Rangers hockey game when the tennis was being played. Guess what was was on the regular MSG network? The same Islanders Rangers game. TIME TO WRITE THE ATP and protest.

April 4th, 2008 at 8:05 am

ChipNCharge said: “They sometimes actually outbid The Tennis Channel for an event and then not even show it!”

John said: “I got to see the first two sets of Roger vs. Andy before FSN put on some fishing show when it was 3-3 in the third set.”

—————————————————

Well, what a shame, isn’t it? Here in Slovakia (mid-Europe) I at least got to see a full delayed broadcast… But to air a delayed broadcast of such a match and then interrupt it at 3 all in the 3rd (just before the all-important 7th and 8th game) by some “fishing show”? I feel for you, guys…

April 4th, 2008 at 8:23 am

Richard Vach said: “Which major sport out there has a strategy of growing their fan base by making them pay to watch from home?”

The only one which comes to my mind is boxing.

April 4th, 2008 at 8:26 am

I guess I was one of the few that got to see it live. Glad to see Roddick get the deed done. It was a grteat match to see live. Watched from Atlanta. We are able to get alot of tennis coverage in our area, although sometimes you really have to look for it. Atlanta is big into tennis. I wish we could get a Master Series Event here. Great location… ATP look here!

April 4th, 2008 at 8:31 am

Great article — I feel exactly the same. The tennis coverage in the US is absolutely pathetic and worse than in years past! I know I saw Indian Wells and Sony Ericsson tournaments on tv before and was baffled that they were showing on “FSN” this year, which is not part of my cable lineup, and even more annoyed to hear that FSN wasn’t even showing it! I will NOT pay money to watch tennis on the internet, that is trash. I already pay extra money for the Tennis Channel, whose coverage isn’t very good either! So maybe I will just cancel the channel as well. UGH!! ATP needs to wise up!

April 4th, 2008 at 8:48 am

Tennis in United States is in trouble. American arrogance is at the point of sickness. When Agassi and Sampras were playing, and Capriati, Davenport, Seles, Williams sister were at the top… Tennis was everywhere… I was getting sick of tennis. They showed smallest tournaments on TV, but today the story is different.

April 4th, 2008 at 9:46 am

Here in Austin, TX (Roddick’s Hometown) I was watching the exciting match last night, and at 3-3 in the third set, just when things got interesting apparently, they cut away to a fishing show, then a dallas starts nhl hockey game. They didn’t show the end of the match. I couldn’t believe it.

April 4th, 2008 at 10:08 am

The coverage has been terrible. The regional FSNs seem to be able to show whatever they want no matter what the DirecTV schedule says. This is really a problem when you’re depending on your DVR to record programming when you’re not there. How is my Tivo supposed to know that “Tennis” really means “Hockey”?

Assuming we manage to hit the right channel and can actually see some matches, they’ll cut things off at some ridiculous point. The Tennis Channel did have some coverage, but it was mostly second hand. I shouldn’t have to go chasing all over the dial to try to catch bits and pieces of this wonderful tournament.

So who is to blame? FSN, for sure. But mostly the ATP, which actually approached FSN when ESPN and the ATP couldn’t come to terms. There is a good post detailing more of this over here:

http://tennisplanet.wordpress.com/2008/02/08/espn-drops-indian-wells-and-miami-tv-coverage-from-katie-thanks/

April 4th, 2008 at 10:54 am

Ditto what Ben said. In Lafayette, LA, at 8:30 Central at 3-3 in the third set, a fishing show came on. By the time I realized it wasn’t a long, insipid commercial and got on the internet, the match was over.

April 4th, 2008 at 10:57 am

Someone in the ATP/WTA has to get their act together regarding tennis coverage . And FSN,
stay out of the tennis business. At what point have you ever cut away from a basketball tournament or baseball in the middle of it to show something else…My guess would be NEVER.
Even a semi-final in Miami ( with Serena Williams) yesterday was pre-empted by baseball coverage. If you can’t do it right, Don’t do it at all.
This issue has become huge in the tennis world these past 3 weeks.
If you get the rights to a sport than either show it or don’t bother bidding (for the coverage.)

April 4th, 2008 at 10:59 am

I am in New York area and I couldn’t watch either. They showed the match with delay, and I already knew the results. The online TV schedule is not accurate either!!!

April 4th, 2008 at 11:13 am

Here is what I believe is the email address for David Sussin, VP of Programming at FSN:

dsussin@foxsports.net

I sent him a (polite) email complaining about the “coverage.”

April 4th, 2008 at 11:17 am

I tried to find a live stream and none of the usual channels showed it either. It’s highly frustrating.

April 4th, 2008 at 11:26 am

And here is the email for Mark Young, who according to the ATP website is “responsible for negotiating the ATP’s major sponsorship deals and television agreements,” among other things.

myoung@atptennis.com

Again, polite and constructive criticism will do more than stinging, sarcastic diatribes.

April 4th, 2008 at 11:32 am

Even worse is the fact the the ATP and WTA block streaming broadcasts from being shown to anyone with a US IP and tournaments have blocked/removed matches on youtube – such shortsighted greed is unbelievable….. They would rather no-one watch than watch for free……

First of all – if someone has access to a TV broadcast, they’re not ging to be watching it online.

If anything, allowing matches to be viewed for free would get more fans and more people willing to spend money to either buy tickets to see it live or to pay for a good quality broadcast if available.

April 4th, 2008 at 12:10 pm

In Tulsa, OK I spent two hours watching tennis, when in the middle of the third & final set, we switched to “Fishing Outdoors Update”.

FSN is the worst coverage we have ever had. I loved it when it was on HBO!!

If we don’t get better coverage, fewer and fewer will watch.

April 4th, 2008 at 1:41 pm

Blogger freakyfrites(http://gototennis.blogspot.com/) tipped me off on your article. Thank god you wrote this article.

On Thursday night I was watching Roger Vs. Roddick on FSN Southwest (I live in Dallas). For two hours I was in heaven because FSN was ACTUALLY showing tennis! Then at 4-3 in the third set, Roddick just held serve (while both players were on-serve), the clock hit 8 p.m. And guess what? The bloody FSN network cut Tennis, and started showing a fishing show.

God Damn FSN! Ten more minutes and the match was over with Roddick finally snapping the l1 match losing streak, winning at 6-3. And I did not get to watch that moment! I had to go on line and watch the live-score to get the results.

I am very frustrated. With all the talk of firing the new ATP CEO, I think this would be another good reason because HE DID NOT SECURE A GOOD TV NETWORK IN USA TO BROADCAST THE BIGGEST ATP EVENT!

This is insane. I despise FSN for their idiotic programming. How could they leave the tennis fans cold by pre-empting the final half hour of a hotly contested tennis match?

I am going to quit following tennis, and start following southwest region fishing championship. Or little league.

at least I can see them on TV.

April 4th, 2008 at 1:50 pm

Fish are taaaaasty! I know this great Lebanese restaurant that serves tilapia in a cream sauce with mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes. Delicious.
I can’t stand it when those tennis matches cut into my favorite seasonal fresh-water fishing reports.

April 4th, 2008 at 2:04 pm

Yes, it is horribly frustrating trying to watch tennis in the US these days. I have Cox digital cable–250+ channels, but tennis channel is not even an option! I watch tennis almost exclusively on the internet. I paid 40 bucks to watch a not-very-good-feed (and horrible commentary…except for Dick Gould during the final) from the B2 Network for San Jose–but at least it was tennis. Dubai I watched on Eurosport for free. I am thankful for my yearly subscription to ATP Masters Series TV –$70–the coverage and commentary and feed are excellent, but there is no “on demand” feature. So if you want to watch Shanghai, you have to live on China time. Ridiculous. The very best coverage is from Wimbledon LIVE–I think I paid $20 last year–ALL of the matches –even doubles–are “on demand” so you don’t miss a thing! It’s the hap, happiest time of the year! I shudder to think what the Davis Cup coverage will be like next week on FSN….does anyone know if it will be on Versus, too (I used to think Versus network was the worst, but FSN has set a whole new standard for suckiness….). I would rather hear Barry McKay prattle on about his favorite dead rubber memories from 1956 than get zip from FSN.

April 4th, 2008 at 3:45 pm

I AM SO ANGRY that there was NO coverage of the Roddick/Federer Match. These “greedy-ass” companies should be reprimanded big-time. I pay for cable + sports packages + tennis channel + website coverage —— and I couldn’t see this, the one of the greatest feats for Andy Roddick.

I cannot affort to purchase any more sports packages and I refuse to.

Shame on the greedy f’ers !!!!

April 4th, 2008 at 5:22 pm

Richard:

FSN ALERT:

As per the TV guide listings, the Roddick v. Davydenko match is slated to be shown by SunSport at 10:00 pm tonight, not FSN , as a delayed broadcast. Well, guess what fans, it’s presently being shown on SUNSPORT, 7:00 pm., at this very moment, but the TV listing is designated as “baseball.” I just happened to come across this as i was changing channels and heard Ted Robinson’s voice, which made me do a double take, looksee, and now am pleasantly very surprised and thrilled that I don’t have to watch the live scoring. Absolutely mahvellousz!

For those who have FSN/SUNSPOrt disregard the listing and take a look. Hope you’ll be equally thrilled as I am. Enjoy. :)

April 4th, 2008 at 6:15 pm

I was lucky enough to be at the match, but today I’m back home in Chicago and really wanted to see the Nadal match but could not. Thanks for the bringing this up.

April 4th, 2008 at 6:40 pm

Great article with my exact sentiments about the frustrating tv coverage of two excellent US tournaments. Firing the ATP CEO would be a great place to start (how about TODAY). FSN was terrible…not only not showing the matches they promised us…but also amateur cameraman. The ATP should be so ashamed; however, I didn’t realize this was done on purpose so they could make money on their master series coverage. Hard to believe that America can’t even show the top Americans playing against the best players in the world (Nadal, Fed and Henin). 99% of Americans cannot name the players on the US Davis team…let alone even know that we won last year. Not a surprise…thanks to FSN and their tennis coverage. Other countries revere their stars! When Tsonga played in the finals in the AO, France changed their programs to show this live. Not the U.S….like you said, we have to watch fishing, car smashing or poker.

April 4th, 2008 at 8:35 pm

I have an ATP Masters Series subscription, I think I paid around 60.00 dollars for a year. Of course, I’d rather watch tennis on broadcast TV because it’s much better resolution. But I don’t want to miss any matches, especially those with Roger Federer. He’s a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon and he’s the reason I got re-acquainted with tennis in the first place.

April 4th, 2008 at 8:55 pm

Oh yeah, the growing redneck population of fishermen, poker players and nascar are exactly WHY FSN chooses to pre-empt tennis in the first place….money talks.

April 4th, 2008 at 8:58 pm

No coverage here in Chicago either. Can you publish the names and addresses of the people we should complain to? I’ll write letters and urge all my tennis teams (I play on 6 throughout the year!) to do the same.

April 4th, 2008 at 10:14 pm

Try watching in AZ, where you have to sneak out of work early in order to get home in time to watch that scratchy match on line.

And, can anyone remind me why I switched satellite companies to get the Tennis Channel, when all they play are repeats of Davis Cup from two decades ago?

April 5th, 2008 at 12:30 am

[…] tennis rant April 5, 2008 So I was watching the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, which is a Master Series tournament, and basically the second biggest tournament on U.S. soil (U.S. Open In NY being #1 of course). Recently tennis tournaments have been broadcast on Fox Sports Network, moving from ESPN2. The commentators have changed, and the new ones suck, and the coverage is just horrible. Get this. I was watching the men’s quarterfinals: World #1 Roger Federer vs. U.S. #1 Andy Roddick. Federer has been in a kind of slump lately, not winning a tournament yet this year (I think). So if there was anytime Roddick was going to avenge his 11 straight losses to Federer, and to finally get a notch on the win column of his 1-15 head to head record, now was the time. Roddick pushed to a tiebreak in the 1st set, clinched it, but then lost the 2nd set. So now in the 3rd set, Roddick is up 4-3, and it’s on serve. The clock strikes 8pm (cst), and all of a sudden the Toyota Outdoor Report comes on with some guy talking about bass fishing. Ok, so I think this is one of those “coming up next, after the match” preview things, except it isn’t! They stopped coverage on the last set of this match, the closing moments, and I had to get online to find out that Roddick ended up breaking Federer’s serve and then holding to win the last set 6-3! A huge win for Roddick, and potentially a huge win for those who want to increase the popularity of the sport in the U.S. And no one got to see it! What’s up with that?! I mean sure, I can understand tennis playing second fiddle to Football, Basketball, even Golf, but bass fishing? I mean FSN decided to cut a LIVE broadcast, and exchange it for some taped Outdoor Report. Whatev. I am a huge fan of the sport, and it’s a disappointment to see the lack of effort to promote it. I have nothing more to say except that this guy says it all pretty well.  […]

April 5th, 2008 at 1:30 am

We were able to get the afternoon tennis but not the evening one. It was a tremendous disappointment to miss Andy Roddick and Roger Federer. It was the biggest match of the tournament. I guess Connecticut does not rate in getting the tennis games at night. They put on things that I do not think people are interested in. Something has to be done and sooner rather than later. If we want it we should not have to pay for it.It must change and fast.

April 5th, 2008 at 7:15 am

Once again I urge everyone to write to the ATP to comlain about FSN’s incomplete and incompetent coverage. By the way after listening to Justin Gimmelstob’s biased and effusive cheerleading for Andy R. I got really pissed.

April 5th, 2008 at 8:28 am

It’s not only FSN. NBC didn’t show Henin-Bartoli, a Wimbledon SF and one of the biggest upsets ever.
And NBC shows mens Wimbledon semis on telayed tape. These are pretty important matches.
ESPN doesn’t show plenty of big semis, goes delayed tape when they could go live. Remember Cincy, Roger-Nole? AO 2007, Nadia-Serena? Taped and delayed, when the match was in set 3, ESPN was showing the prematch warmups.
TC doesn’t show a lot of matches that they could. They show plenty of big matches on tape, like the deciding Fed Cup match last summer, US-Russia, Tennis Channel showed a tape of Petrova beating Tu 62 62, instead of the deciding tie, which was being played at that moment.

The problem is the USTA. They line their pockets with USO money, and refuse to get involved in keeping the sport in the public eye. Tennis is now irrelevant to the mainstream US sports fan.
So you get this lame tv coverage on every channel.
It’s only going to get worse.

April 5th, 2008 at 8:46 am

No, in NM you could not see the Roddick – Fed match even recorded. It was just never on. How amazing. Now I am attempting to watch the taped Roddick – Davydanko match and the sound is bad.

FSN has been the worst coversage of tennis both from a regional perspective and also the very limited coverage. I guess I have gotten spoiled the last few years the TTC and ESPN for the endless coverage they do, mostly live.

So what is going on with IW and Miami switching FSN? Vitually none of the night matches were shown from IW and it looked like this week TTC could only show one match over and over again.

Oh well, hopefully the tournaments will get the message and pick a better partner for TV coverage next year.

April 5th, 2008 at 9:08 am

The loudest protest should be coming from the players. If they stood up for the disservice to tennis fans, things would change.

April 5th, 2008 at 10:37 am

[…] « Poll: Did You See Federer vs. Roddick on Thursday? Probably Not April 5th, 2008 Nadal No Slouch on Hard Courts; FSN Bows Out by Sean Randall […]

April 5th, 2008 at 10:50 am

I agree that the ATP is completely uncommitted and/or incompetent when it comes to cultivating fans. I bought a day pass to the Master’s Series web site for $7.95 to watch Federer v Haas at Indian Wells a couple weeks back. Then Haaas pulled out, and the match was never played. The site refused to give me my lousy $8 back, citing the user agreement I had accepted when I purchased. Such arrogant disregard for the fans.

April 5th, 2008 at 12:01 pm

america is all about supply and demand… the reason you have to pay to watch the match is the same reason we have the most accessible tennis programs to underprivilidged children on the planet! in europe, sure they have it on tv, but it is a very select upper class that gets to play… here we have no matches on tv, but every one is outside playing the games in parks… business decisions like the ones made by FSN to show fishing, is wise and creates good economy for us where we are independent and have opportunity… the masses will never demand tennis match over nascar… not in AMERICA! but that is good!

April 5th, 2008 at 2:12 pm

Gabe, what happened to you is just proof how uncommitted the ATP is to its fans AND players. The fans will soon be disappearing if we can’t watch what makes us fans to begin with. The fact you had to pay $8 to begin with is shameful when it should have been televised…but not to give you back your $8 (and all the other $8 they kept) spells out their GREED and lack of caring about tennis progressing in a positive way.

April 5th, 2008 at 2:25 pm

It was the failure of the Tennis Channel to promote the vegas event as well, showing barely a coommercial on their opwn network prior to the event, and then starting 2 months before to promote it locally, only using a local marketing firm that knew nothing about tennis, reaching out to clubs and pros. They just put some ads on radio and the newspaper. Another example of horrible promotion. But it seems now they wanted it to not do well so they could justify getting out of the tournament business. Even then they nearly sold out the first 3 nights, and had great weather all week, but to justify selling it they now pass on the lie that tickets ales were low, when in fact they were the highest in 3 years. More over, had they marketed the event, even by calling last years ticket buyers and offering them to do it again, they would have sold out easily.

April 5th, 2008 at 5:57 pm

On the ATP Masters Series TV website – http://www.atpmastersseries.tv – it might be a “scratchy medium-resolution internet feed” compared to a TV signal but compared to other live sports streaming websites it’s the best quality pictures I’ve ever seen.

I’ve been plugging my laptop into TV and selecting full screen on the 1MB setting the picture is brilliant! It’s not exactly expensive either, I thoroughly recommend it.

April 7th, 2008 at 9:45 am

I totally agree Stu, the Masters Series Website rocks! best streaming I’ve seen and theres loads of stuff on there for free. Also if you’ve been paying $30 Vach then you’ve been ripped off! I’m sure its like $6 to watch for a day.

April 7th, 2008 at 9:54 am

I heard back from the ATP in response to my email complaining about the FSN coverage. While admitting that there were problems, the basic tenor of the response is “well, we got you somthing, and getting something is better than getting nothing at all.”

Here’s the response:

Dear (anoncoward):

Thank you for your email and for expressing your views on TV coverage in the US. We appreciate and take on board all opinions expressed to us.

The Miami and Indian Wells tournament teams embarked on new partnerships with Fox Sports News this year following an unacceptable coverage offer from ESPN who had previously held the TV rights to the tournaments. Due to their busy March schedule, they were only willing to broadcast a greatly reduced number of hours for each tournament. For two of the most important tournaments outside the Slams this was unacceptable.

We agree there have been some teething problems with this year’s coverage. This has been acknowledged by FSN themselves who have apologized for the error in breaking from the Roddick/ Federer match and are reviewing the circumstances, as well as their programming policies, to ensure this never happens again.

Putting that issue aside, FSN’s coverage of Indian Wells and Miami this month has created vastly increased hours of coverage that would not have been shown on ESPN and delivered substantially increased viewing figures for the two tournaments. FSN have shown a willingness to support tennis and to work with us, The Pacific Life Open and The Sony Ericsson Open to ensure fans across the country can see more tennis action in the spring. We will continue to work with FSN to help make this partnership grow and improve and to ensure our fans in the US can see more ATP Tour tennis action on TV.

Mark Young

April 7th, 2008 at 11:06 am

All I can say is, I’m GLAD I live in India. :) All the Masters Series (albeit from the 3rd/4th rounds onwards, only), all the Grand Slams, the Masters Cup, Davis Cup semis and finals. Wish the WTA coverage was better – but compared to what the American fans are going through, I can’t complain, can I?

April 10th, 2008 at 10:41 am

Excellent post. *stumbles*

April 28th, 2008 at 8:33 am

fun websites for women…

How do you come up with so much material to blog with?…

June 26th, 2008 at 9:08 pm