CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT / AFP
Rafael Nadal during his victory over Casper Ruud in the Roland-Garros final on Court Philippe-Chatrier in Paris, June 5, 2022
TENNIS – After numerous consultations, the French Tennis Federation has decided to entrust the retransmission of Roland-Garros to the current broadcasters, France Télévisions and Prime Vidéo, until 2027, announced this Thursday March 30 to AFP the president of the TFF.
“We are very happy to have created the perfect combination, with small adjustments”in between “the 30-year-old broadcaster” what is France Télévisions with its free channels, and the paid internet platform Amazon Prime Video, Gilles Moretton told AFP, stressing that Roland-Garros would be included in the Amazon subscription.
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THE “adjustments” mentioned concern in particular the matches on the Simonne-Mathieu court, the third largest enclosure of the Roland-Garros complex: the public service recovers the exclusivity of the matches played on this court, the prerogative of the internet platform under the terms of the previous contract which covered over the period 2021-2023.
In exchange for the loss of this exclusivity, Prime Video recovers an additional night match from 2024, that of the first Sunday of the fortnight. It will therefore be 11 matches played at night on the Philippe-Chatrier court that Prime Video will broadcast exclusively from next year.
The semi-finals and finals will remain in co-broadcast.
” Rising “
This new contract, the amount of which ” rising “ has not been disclosed but which according to Moretton remains well below that of the national TV rights of the other three Grand Slam tournaments (Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open), covers the four editions from 2024 to 2027 and been “negotiated by mutual agreement” without the need for a call for tenders, insisted the president of the FFT. His teams have “surveyed all broadcasters” before signing again with the current ones.
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“In a context of heightened global competition for sports rights, I am proud that public television can bring this major sporting event to as many people as possible”rejoiced the president of France Télévisions, Delphine Ernotte.
“We are delighted to collaborate with the FFT so that the evening sessions become an unmissable event to follow in France”commented the general manager of Prime Video Sports Europe, Alex Green.
The leader of the Federation pointed out that “three important criteria” presided over the negotiations: “the notion of promoting tennis is the role of a Federation, and editorial quality”while “money only came last”.
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However, the exclusive broadcasting on Prime Video of the matches of the Simonne-Mathieu court and the night sessions, according to the agreement currently in force, had created the dissatisfaction of some of the private viewers of several major posters and in particular of the quarter-final 2022 between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, for which the FFT had managed to obtain free broadcasting on the Amazon platform.
“Proof that our partners are listening”pointed out Moretton.
“Living with the times”
The new contract still provides that the match scheduled at night for Prime Video is “poster of the day”adding difficulty to the daily puzzle of dating scheduling.
Last year, tournament director Amélie Mauresmo was criticized for having scheduled only one women’s night match, Cornet-Ostapenko, over the entire fortnight.
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Gilles Moretton recalled that the programming was the work of a group of people and not of the tournament director alone and assured that the new contract did not change anything in the choice of the night match.
“The programming is not established at the start, with so many women’s matches, so many men. We will see according to the matches. There is no balance requirement. men and women, he assured.
As for the difficulty that some viewers may still have in getting used to watching their program on an internet platform, Moretton decides: “You have to live with the times”.
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Amazon did not communicate on its global audiences at Roland-Garros last year, confining itself to welcoming the fact that more than three million people had watched the famous quarter-final Nadal-Djokovic.
For its part, France Télévisions gathered an average of 1.9 million viewers in the afternoon and an average of 4.6 million during the final, won by Rafael Nadal – his 14th title at Roland-Garros.
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