Makes sense now. I was wondering how ESPN could secure the rights given parts of the US Open are on the anti siphoning list. Good pickup for SBS assuming they have live coverage of the finals.
The finals will be simulcast on both SBS and ESPN as I understand.
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Judging from the article on Mediaweek, it seems as if they’ll be taking the ESPN US feed with Chris Fowler (who also does college football) leading the team. I’ve seen bits and pieces of their coverage over time and it is impressive - though hopefully it’s not too based around American players despite the fact we’re now getting it too.
Fiction becomes real.
Both ESPN and ESPN 2 now have a permanent infobar on the bottom. Even in the ads. Maybe playout has moved to US or they getting it direct as the info is even over australian ads.
Saw that this morning. I thought it was a straight copy of the BottomLine (what ESPN call the infobar) that’s on ESPN networks in the US, but its not as there’s Australian start times for events. I wonder if they’ll eventually expand that to include Australian sports scores?
No coverage of the US Open on ESPN until 3am. Not a good start.
Fox Sports and even Nine always started their early round coverage at 1am.
For some stupid reason, ESPN US doesn’t start their coverage until the same time during the five days of the tournament. Since ESPN Aust is simulcasting the US coverage, it’s the reason for the late start
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For the first few days ESPN coverage begins at 1 am on their online service WatchESPN before transitioning to TV at 3 am.
The coverage is atrocious. Give me the world feedany day over what we got on day 1.
Nick Kyrgios playing against another Aussie John Millman yet no coverage on ESPN because of this two hour blackout bullshit. Just absurd.
Edit: Someone literally flicked a switch at 2:18am from Mike & Mike to the match just before it started.
Really? The world feed coverage was so bland and boring and cut off at around 7=8am for an hour or two. It was horrible. ESPN is fantastic, great coverage of all the courts and if you’re up at 1am watching just put on watchESPN and you have selection of every court. I don’t get the criticism.
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I’ve come around on the ESPN coverage over the last few days. The around the courts coverage is very good and we seem to be getting a full picture. The only thing is that early start, while those games are on watchESPN, I have it on the big screens at my office so can’t watch as easily. There’s also a few too many ad breaks.
Are we getting the same coverage of the US open as ESPN US?
Yes, it’s the exact same TV and streaming coverage that Americans can access
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Yes, Except when they flick the switch, which is what they should be doing now so we can watch the Aussie Millman instead of Zhang v Plisokova
I wasn’t up at the time but they also have to service NZ viewers who would have no interest in watching Millman and would rather watch the world number 1 women’s player.
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Couldn’t ESPN split the feeds so that Australia viewers get coverage of matches involving Australian players while NZ viewers continue getting the US ‘court-to-court’ coverage? I know they could do it because they did it in 2014 when they had rights to Wimbledon in NZ as a result of TVNZ focusing on FIFA World Cup commitments
That’s right. Forgot about that. I suppose they could. We’ve just been getting the Aussie matches mostly anyway but I can understand why they didn’t cut away to show Millman in this instance.