Here Come the Women!

Have you missed seeing women’s tennis on TV? If you have, you will be happy to know that the Tennis Channel has reached a deal to show them again next year.

According to the NY Times …

“As part of a lucrative five-year global television deal that provided a needed cash infusion in 2016, the WTA sold the rights to its overseas tennis tournaments to beIN Sports, beginning with the 2017 season.
But it was fans who often paid the price. From the start, they were frustrated by beIN Sports’ often intermittent and inattentive coverage of women’s tennis, which was frequently relegated in the United States in favor of other sports, particularly soccer.

Eventually, WTA officials grew frustrated, too. The WTA cut short the United States portion of its worldwide rights deal with beIN Sports and returned to Tennis Channel in an agreement announced Oct 1st.
The new five-year deal with Tennis Channel includes television and digital streaming components, giving ample real estate to the WTA tour, which now produces television broadcasts of more than 2,000 matches annually. Tennis Channel also holds the U.S. rights to the men’s tour.”

Did you miss the ladies??

Upcoming CAT II

This excellent tournament will again take place at the end of November on picturesque Longboat Key near Sarasota, Florida. With the support of the NSMTA, the tournament will utilize the new and popular round robin format for the doubles sections.

Doubles players will be guaranteed two main draw matches and often three in the round robin. Because of large draws in LBK some doubles (32 draws) will start on Tuesday in order to finish by Sunday.

Know someone who should read this? Send them a link and if you are not on my “new posting alert email list” and want to be (I promise, no other uses of your email address!), just drop me a note at GeorgeWachtel@gmail.com

Comments:

Jim Flath
I don’t know what the WTA was thinking in the first place. Did they really believe that a sports network, owned by Al Jazeera, was going to give a high priority to a women’s tour, other than maybe soccer? Very short-sighted. My wife is happy about this decision, but she won’t be totally satisfied until Tennis Channel gets all of the tournaments back.
This may not have struck a chord with your readers, but it is a big deal for the future of women’s tennis. Thanks for bringing it up.
Jim, like your wife, i enjoy the variety of being able to watch the women play. thanks, george