Sky's TV coverage of the US open is shameful. The ATP, WTA and LTA should demand better
Sky's TV coverage of the US open is shameful. The ATP, WTA and LTA should demand better
Why this petition matters
To the ATP, WTA, LTA and other relevant organisations,
I’m writing on behalf of British fans who have been trying to follow the US open from the UK. It’s been a brilliant start to the US open, with all Brits coming through the first round, without dropping a set, and other brilliant matches happening on all the other courts.
Unfortunately, the complete opposite can be said for the TV coverage of the US open. From the very first point, the offering from Sky has been far below what was expected. Firstly, viewers only have a choice of two channels showing the tennis, so we can’t choose specific matches we want to watch. And half the time, one of these channels is in the studio showing analysis or interviews, meaning only one match is being shown live at a time, out of the potential 16 matches happening.
Whilst Now TV is claiming these extra matches are available, these are locked within “bonus streams”. For some bizarre and unknown reason, Sky have locked these to be only watchable on certain devices. The list of devices they are available on seems, at best, random, and I can’t see any feasible reason why these can’t be made available to everyone on desktop or mobile. Now TV’s support have cited “compatibility reasons” on their twitter support page, but this is extremely difficult to believe, as they were available for the first hour of the tournament on monday on all devices before being removed. And as a video streaming, not serving content because of compatibility issues just seems pathetic. For those who do own one of those compatible devices listed by NOW TV, many of them are also having issues, with the streams not showing up. Whilst this might just be a bug within the software, it is another fault in an already shockingly poor system.
Sky actually advertised before the tournament that they would be offering all court coverage on Sky and NOW TV in this article. However, they have since changed the wording on the page. Luckily, I have screenshots showing the previous messaging.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/2mchczTPCfZcEqkX9
Secondly, as of writing this, the first round has been completed and the second round is well underway, meaning around 150 matches have been completed. But so far, only 3 matches are available to watch replays of. As a tournament in the US, and so a lot of the matches taking place overnight for British watchers, we rely on the replays to catch up on matches and keep up to date with what has happened overnight. At the moment, this is impossible. NOW TV’s support say that matches would be available within 24 hours of being completed, but this just hasn’t happened. They have cited extra processing delays and adding extensions to the live content, but 3 match replays uploaded out of 150 on day 3 is unacceptable, especially when many of us can’t choose what match we want to watch live in the first place, and want to catch a replay of it later.
The last point I want to make in this letter is the price. The minimum price for Sky Sports or NOW TV is £26 a month. Over a year, this is 3 times higher than what Amazon prime charges for their service, which was brilliant coverage. And Eurosport has an amazing offering for £40 a year. Sky’s asking price is difficult for many. Now having seen how incapable Sky are of delivering even a basic viewing experience to British tennis fans, this is borderline scamming the public. I know that’s a strong accusation, but with evidence above of Sky changing the wording in their article, I, and many others who have also tried to use Sky or Now TV, feel the same.
I’m writing to you on behalf of the British fans to force Sky to improve its offering to its customers. All court coverage on all devices and match replays in a reasonable timeframe should be a minimum. There are plenty of other big issues too, but they are less glaring and are things that can be improved incrementally over time. If this is something you are unwilling to do, or Sky are unwilling to budge, I strongly urge that you seek another broadcasting provider for the ATP/WTA tours for the 2024 season. The way things are at the moment makes the sport almost impossible to follow. As a player and former coach myself, if you share the same interests as I do in growing the game, then that means making the tours and grand slams as accessible to everyone as possible. Right now, Sky are doing the exact opposite, and to see that carry on would be a disaster for British tennis and the fans.
Yours Faithfully,
Etienne Sharkey
On behalf of all British tennis fans