Another Australian Summer of Tennis, and yet again, viewers have fallen victim to coverage that is not giving the audience the best possible experience.
Unlike previous years, Fox Sports this year will not telecast any of the Australian Open, leaving viewers the option of watching only one match provided by Channel 7.
Not only this, but Channel 7 has decided not to use their digital channel for tennis coverage, but remain with regular programming.
It has been reported that 7 offered Foxtel some of the telecast rights of the tournament. Foxtel declined due to the cost 7 were demanding.
This has been costly for the tennis lovers throughout Australia.
At least for the first week of the tournament, there needs to be at worst one other option for viewers.
Unless you were at the Hisense arena on Wednesday night, you would have missed one of the classic matches of recent times between two quality players in number 4 seed Juan Martin Del Potro and American James Blake, which finished with Del Potro victorious 10-8 in the fifth set.
How about the ‘press red’ option, for at least the first week?
Moreover, 7 have consistently stopped their telecast halfway through matches, including Australian Lleyton Hewitt’s second round Australian Open match before the conclusion, to go straight to their news coverage.
7 aren’t the only network to do this – the ABC failed to show the final moments of the Hopman Cup final in Perth, instead going to their 7pm news before showing the ending at 730 – delayed.
The biggest loser through all of this is tennis. And with the tennis season in Australia lasting less than a month, there needs to be a greater level of coverage.
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