Amazon’s withdrawal from tennis coverage opened up the way for Sky to resume live coverage of the event from Flushing Meadows.
Sky Sports has today announced a new five-year partnership with the United States Tennis Association (USTA) for the US Open Championships, welcoming tennis back to Sky Sports across the UK and Ireland.
The new agreement will begin with the 2023 US Open at Flushing Meadows, starting on 28th August, with Sky Sports holding the exclusive broadcast rights up to and including the 2027 event.
Sky Sports will have access to all individual court feeds, broadcasting a minimum of 135 hours of competition throughout the two-week Grand Slam tournament. Across Sky Sports’ linear channels and on Sky Sports digital and social channels, extensive coverage will provide content for both existing tennis fans and new audiences.
The agreement includes coverage of both the Men’s and Women’s tournaments, alongside respective Double’s, Mixed Doubles, Juniors, and Wheelchair competitions.
The partnership comes at a time when British tennis has great momentum, with former US Open Champion Emma Raducanu and the Billie Jean Cup team leading the way in women’s tennis, Alfie Hewett taking the 2022 US Open Wheelchair singles title, and Cameron Norrie, Andy Murray, Jack Draper and Daniel Evans all seeing success at Flushing Meadows last year.
Amazon Prime’s withdrawal
In October, it was reported that Amazon had decided to pull out of providing live tennis coverage across the UK and Ireland. It originally acquired US Open tennis rights to help kickstart its sports streaming offer through Prime Video. Since then, Amazon has secured rights to live Premier League Football and Autumn Internationals Rugby. At the time The Telegraph reported Apple TV could make a move for the US Open, but Sky was the favourite to secure the rights.
Sky hasn’t indicated at this stage if it will be launching a dedicated Sky Sports Tennis channel, as it has done in Germany, Austria and Italy.
Jonathan Licht, MD Sky Sports says:
“We are very excited to partner with the USTA once again to deliver the US Open, one of the greatest Grand Slam Tennis tournaments in the world. We have had a great history with the USTA and remember Andy Murray’s 2012 US Open win as one of the great moments on Sky Sports. This is another huge sporting event for our viewers, and we look forward to bringing tennis fans more of what they love and welcoming in new fans to the sport”
Kirsten Corio, Chief Commercial Officer, USTA says:
“The USTA and Sky Sports have a long history together and it’s an exciting time to be partnering once again. We’re looking forward to showcasing the US Open to an increasing number of fans in the UK and Ireland over the next five years as the sport continues to grow and a new generation of stars emerges.”