This is absolutely incredible. Thank you for writing it. Couldn't agree more about the lack of broadcast innovation in this sport. It's barely changed in years.
Honestly, I don't understand what the ITF and ATP is doing. The streaming situation is a sick joke; when ATP and WTA split, they both decided to charge the same price for literally half the product (at least wta offers tournament pricing which is a start). And the pricing itself - and I say this as a tennis fan - is really off base. ATP seems to think watching non-slam, mens-only tournaments, has the same value netflix or disney+ to me... If it had the womens, and/or the slams, maybe.
The salutory lesson of netflix was that if you make it easier to pay for than pirate, and price it fairly, people will happily pay. I would happily pay!
As it currently stands, I can get a better user experience going to dodgy sports streaming sites, which is a huge indictment on the ATP, WTA and ITF. They are hooked on that syndication revenue, but honestly, they are leaving a lot of money on the table.
Over here, to get tennis on pay/cable tv, you have to subscribe to the whole sports package which is like $60 a month, and coverage is still spotty, inconsistent, poor quality streams and half the time it's replays which may be years old.
This is absolutely incredible. Thank you for writing it. Couldn't agree more about the lack of broadcast innovation in this sport. It's barely changed in years.
Honestly, I don't understand what the ITF and ATP is doing. The streaming situation is a sick joke; when ATP and WTA split, they both decided to charge the same price for literally half the product (at least wta offers tournament pricing which is a start). And the pricing itself - and I say this as a tennis fan - is really off base. ATP seems to think watching non-slam, mens-only tournaments, has the same value netflix or disney+ to me... If it had the womens, and/or the slams, maybe.
The salutory lesson of netflix was that if you make it easier to pay for than pirate, and price it fairly, people will happily pay. I would happily pay!
As it currently stands, I can get a better user experience going to dodgy sports streaming sites, which is a huge indictment on the ATP, WTA and ITF. They are hooked on that syndication revenue, but honestly, they are leaving a lot of money on the table.
Over here, to get tennis on pay/cable tv, you have to subscribe to the whole sports package which is like $60 a month, and coverage is still spotty, inconsistent, poor quality streams and half the time it's replays which may be years old.
Rickrolled. Nice. Kinda. Not really, but nice