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Tennis Channel?
- Thread starter kds1
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Actually, there are two types of program offerings, Tennis Channel and Tennis Channel Plus. The Tennis Channel offering gives you access to the live broadcast of the Tennis Channel which as you noted requires a cable or satellite subscription. The Tennis Channel Plus can be purchased outside of a cable or satellite subscription and it gives you access to the live broadcasts and tournament replays.
Here is the full description:
Tennis Channel Plus is a new subscription service for the ultimate tennis fan. By upgrading to Tennis Channel Plus, you'll get instant access to a new 24/7 network featuring over 300 live professional tennis matches including up to 5 simultaneous live court play for the first 8 days from the French Open as well as live matches from the ATP, WTA, Davis, Fed and Hopman Cups throughout the year. In addition, Tennis Channel Plus subscribers get On-demand access to 1000's of hours of tennis matches and original programming.
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I thought I remember reading 2 slams in the 9to5 Mac articles (Australian and French Open).
Frankly, I tried watching Australian Open last night and they didn't have anything unless I registered (I have DirecTV but do not have Tennis Channel in my package. So I am not sure if it will allow me access. Will be trying today). I switched over to the ESPN app and it was carrying the first round live and you could choose from all the matches going on. Video quality was acceptable but not HD and had a few infrequent stutters. So not sure the new Tennis channel app is going to provide much additional.
Update 1: just check the article and it does say they will carry the French Open 2015.
Update 2: Successfully registered my aTV. Not worth the effort. Only have access to "Featured" and "On-Demand" which I had anyway. When I try to access the Tennis Channel tab it tells me authorization failed. So basically you have to already be subscribing to the Tennis Channel through your provider or pay them $60/yr for access. Might be worth it for a tennis nut, but as a casual viewer, I will just watch ESPN.
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ESPN is the primary distributor of grand slam tennis. I think some, if not all slams have brodcasting rules that require the broadcaster reach a certain minimum number of homes. Tennis Channel would never satisfy that requirement. Tennis Channel gets enough slam coverage to keep it viable as a channel (and maybe push it into the same cable tier as golf channel).
+1
Tennis Channel basically carries what ESPN chooses not to (non-primetime players and off time matches).
I don't have ESPN. Hence my viewpoint. All this app access is pointless to me, whether I have cable or not. If I have cable, I'll just watch it via cable, and if I don't, I'm still not allowed to use most of these apps. MLB is different, and so is the one option here, but not much for the grand slams.
But also, Wimbledon is the distributor of Wimbledon. They rule their world, ESPN just gets to play along. And I think it's really CBS above ESPN for the US Open, although I could be wrong on that one, or it could have changed.
But also, Wimbledon is the distributor of Wimbledon. They rule their world, ESPN just gets to play along. And I think it's really CBS above ESPN for the US Open, although I could be wrong on that one, or it could have changed.
