BBC scale back coverage of Australian Open tennis
January 11, 2012 · 26 Comments
The BBC will not broadcast comprehensive live coverage of the first grand slam tournament of the year, the Australian Open 2012 as the sport budget cuts start to bite.
Suspicions first arose that the broadcaster was scaling back coverage when the BBC Tennis website only listed the men’s & women’s finals for live UK broadcast. In previous years the BBC have broadcast live coverage on the Red Button with matches featuring Andy Murray on BBC Two.
BBC Sport journalist Piers Newbury appeared to confirm the move on twitter, when in response to a question about the coverage he replied : “BBC TV just has the men’s and women’s finals this year. It’s a money thing.” Piers later confirmed that the BBC will also broadcast one of the men’s semi-finals live on the BBC, however none of the earlier rounds.
BBC coverage details for the @AustralianOpen - singles finals + one men's semi on TV, 5 live & web comms. http://t.co/mIkUQC1P #bbctennis
@piersnewbery
Piers Newbery
@StevieMoffat I'm in danger of having to defend this despite it being nothing to do with me but - it's pure cash, can't afford it after cuts
@piersnewbery
Piers Newbery
The BBC recently made an extended commitment to Wimbledon, ensuring that the tournament remains with the corporation until at least 2017. However, in preserving these major domestic sporting events, the BBC lost the rights to coverage of another grand slam tennis tournament, the French Open to ITV.
Comprehensive live coverage of the Australian Open will be left to British Eurosport in the UK who will broadcast the tournament in full between 16 – 29 January from 12 midnight daily.
Game Set and Mats also returns with Mats Wilander and Annabel Croft and will be broadcast after the live coverage featuring a round-up of the best of the days action, interviews and news updates.
Andy Murray heads to Melbourne Park in fine form following victory in the Brisbane International as he attempts another bid to win his first grand slam title. Murray has fallen at the final hurdle in the final at the Rod Laver Arena in the past two years.
What do you think of the lack of BBC coverage of the Australian Open – tell us in the comments box below ?
Tags: Andy Murray, Annabel Croft, Australian Open, BBC red button, BBC Sport, British Eurosport, Mats Wilander, Piers Newbery
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Massively disappointed in the BBC scaling back their coverage. Always look forward to watching the tennis from Melbourne during a miserable January.
Can’t believe they won’t be showing even any of the Murray matches – no chance of a change of heart ?
Not Surprised about Aus open tennis I expect the french will go the same way football gets all the budget these days its the same as GrandPrix The BBC have had it as far as im concerned Sky here we come
Disgusting! Why does football receive so much coverage and tennis is restricted to Wimbledon – how much longer will it be before we all have to purchase SKY
Couldn’t agree more.
*UPDATE* The BBC Tennis website now says that the BBC will broadcast 1 of the men’s semi-finals in addition to both the men’s & women’s final – article now updated.
Im not shocked by this the BBC are a disgrace i’d rather pay just to have skysports 1 than pay a licence fee to the BBC
Surely it cannot cost that much compared to putting on premiership football matches, most of which are covered by Sky. It is extremely disappointing that you are throwing us once again into th clutches of Sky by denying your usually excellent coverage. Shame on you!!
Hear, hear!
Disgraceful – not everyone wants to subscribe to Sky – We depend on the BBC to show us coverage of three of the Slams!
We do not need the commentators just camera coverage!
Wouldn’t surprise me if ITV poach the rights for 2013.
Probably showing my ignorance here, but surely the BBC have already paid to acquire the rights, so how hard can it be to put them to air ?
Surely they just stick the feed on air ? It doesn’t need to have Sue Barker’s involvement, just a commentator sat in London.
I would rather that ITV did get the rights if they were prepared to air live coverage.
Was really looking forward to watching the tennis next week and as the previous comments say we don’t need anybody telling us what is going on..we just need the match to enjoy!
As a keen tennis fan and my elderley mother too, we find it hard to believe that the BBC has decided not to broadcast matches from one of the four main Grand Slam tournaments of which Andy Murray most surely is a strong contender.
Like so many other people we were both looking forward to watching the tennis on the BBC and one has to question what do we pay our licence fee for certainly not for listening to tennis commentary on Radio 5 live!
probably because the BBC won’t commit to live sport in daytime hours due to the cuts. Most of the coverage is in the early hours of the morning.
We’ve had sub standard darts coverage this week and now the tennis.Can’t they close down BBC Three and keep the live sport ?
Absolutely disgusted by this. All they have to do is arrange to take the host broadcasters coverage and have someone do commentary on it from a studio here. Even a very slightly delayed transmission would be better than this. The text commentary system on the website is rubbish, very often seriously behind the action and too full of smart comments. Very bad news for tennis fans indeed.
Absolutely disgusted with the lack of coverage of Australian Open on BBC tv. Their obsession with Wimbledon, at the expense of the other Majors is ludicrous. I’m sure they’ll be a backlash from cheated tennis fans
Tennis tournament coverage has always been limited compared to other sports and so too were match choices, but that was acceptable as at least we saw some tennis. But it is deplorable to have no coverage whatsoever of Grand Slams. What a dismal start to the new year and an extremely disappointing decision by the BBC to cut back on such a wonderful and good spirited sport…please reconsider…and soon.
The problem is the draconian cut in licence fee imposed by Cabinet minister Jeremy Hunt (known supporter of Rupert Murdoch) which was unopposed by BBC Trust Chairman Chris Pattern (ex Tory Cabinet minister). Surprise, surprise BSkyB is the main beneficiary of these cuts.
Wildly disappointed. They don’t even seem to have a daily highlights programme. Their ghastly “on-line text coverage” is no substitute. Shame on them.
Very disappointed not to be able to view the tennis, might investigate getting sky. When Davis cup team played twice in glasgow, winning both times it was difficult even to get a mention in the sports section at the end of the news.
I was stunned upon discovering the BBC had dropped the Austrailian Open coverage. By the time the finals arrive, I will have lost interest. It’s the build-up that makes the tournament.
They need to do some najor re-thinking. We don’t need more Wimbledon, we need more tennis throughout the year!
Hugely disappointed that the Nadal Federer semi will not be broadcast on BBC TV, only on radio.
So as expected, the BBC’s live semi final is Novak Djokovic v Andy Murray to be broadcast live on BBC Two & BBC HD on Friday at 8:30am.
Very disappointed not to be able to see Andy’s matches on TV. Have subscribed to Eurosport Player so I can watch the Australian Open and now I’ve got to pay even more as I’ve exceeded my broadband allowance. Definitely not amused!
Disgusted at lack of grand slam tennis coverage on BBC. No wonder there is only one decent British male tennis player when most youngsters rarely get to see the sport on terrestial TV.