All change for tennis fans, with viewers wanting to stream live coverage of the Roland-Garros French Open facing a 343% increase in the cost compared to last year.
- TNT Sports and Discovery+ will have coverage of the event. Qualifiers start from 19th May. The main event starts Sunday 25th May.
- Changes to 4K UHD provision
The first tennis grand slam since the end of Eurosport in the UK and Ireland brings changes to the way you can watch coverage.
Rightsholder Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) is in the middle of a transformation of its services. Eurosport is now more. And its streaming service Discovery+ is expected to be replaced by Max at the end of the year.
For one final time, Discovery+ will be the exclusive streaming home of the event – but only in the UK. It will offer coverage of every men’s and women’s singles, doubles, juniors, wheelchair and legends matches. But unlike last year, you’ll need a Premium subscription to access coverage. That’s currently available for £30.99 a month, up from the £6.99 monthly fee that applied last year, a 343% increase.
For streamers in the Republic of Ireland, there’s another blow. The premium tier Discovery+ isn’t available, so coverage will be via traditional broadcast channels only.
Coverage on ‘regular’ TV
TNT Sports takes over from Eurosport in the UK and Ireland to provide coverage on traditional TV platforms. Its broadcast channels on Sky, Virgin Media, EE TV (UK) and Vodafone TV (Ireland) will have full coverage of the event from Sunday 25th May until Sunday 8th June 2025.
Coverage will start at around 10:00am BST each morning. Coverage of night sessions start at 7:15pm BST until the finals. The singles finals on 7/8th June will be at 2:00pm BST.
WBD hasn’t yet confirmed if it will be offering any free-to-air coverage or highlights on its free-to-air channels.
4K UHD coverage
Eurosport previously operated a temporary 4K UHD pop-up channel for Roland-Garros. While Eurosport will continue to offer that service in continental Europe, the arrangements here are changing.
TNT Sports will provide coverage via its dedicated 4K UHD service – TNT Sports Ultimate – which is available on Sky, EE and Virgin Media. You’ll need a 4K UHD TV and a Sky/Virgin/EE TV receiver that supports UHD (e.g. Sky Q for satellite). Your provider may charge extra for UHD. You can check any other requirements with the relevant platform operator:
Discovery+ only has limited 4K UHD capability. You can’t currently watch live events from TNT Sports in 4K UHD, but on-demand content is available in 4K UHD.
WBD hasn’t confirmed when it will add full live 4K UHD streaming support to Discovery+ or whether it will wait until Max replaces Discovery+.
Roland-Garros 2025 key dates
- Monday 19 May – qualifiers begin
- Sunday 25 May – main draw begins
- From Tuesday 3 June – singles quarter-finals
- Thursday 5 June – mixed doubles final
- Thursday 5 June – women’s singles semi-finals
- Friday 6 June – men’s singles semi-finals
- Saturday 7 June – women’s singles; men’s doubles; wheelchair; junior singles and doubles finals
- Sunday 8 June – men’s singles; women’s doubles finals
By: Marc Thornham | Image: WBD publicity