No ratings yet 10 days into TNT's inaugural French Open coverage
Spokesman says figures will be out soon, engagement strong
A brief post about TNT Sports and the French Open (sorry Roland Garros). TNT took over for Tennis Channel and long time broadcaster of the event NBC Sports. TNT, reeling from losing the NBA, went on a buying spree of lesser properties, spending a reported $65 million a year for the rights to the red clay court event.
So it is a little puzzling there have been no TV ratings put out by TNT. ESPN, which broadcasts the other three majors, usually has ratings info out by the end of the first week. It’s about halfway through the second week. Now realistically the rating that people focus on are the men’s and women’s finals, but TNT does broadcast the other 13, 14 days. This is what TNT said about ratings info.
“We should have first-week ratings later this week. There have been multiple delays – Nielsen had a data delay, and the Memorial Day holiday pushed us back – but we have early data that suggests strong viewer engagement growth and increases in watch time. We should have a complete picture to share soon.”
One would expect TNT to post stronger ratings than Tennis Channel, whose broadcasts excluded some of the semis and finals, and Memorial Day coverage. Tennis Channel on some pay TV outlets is on a sports tier, so its potential audience is smaller than TNT, which is largely available with basic cable. The tournament, which TNT religiously calls Roland Garros, is also streamed on Max (soon to be redubbed HBO Max). Max is in over 100 million homes. I don’t know how many homes TC plus is in, but its not nine figures. TC’s passionate audience is sure to find the French on TNT, and TNT and Max can also pick up casual viewers say intrigued by the prominent placement of Roland Garros on the Max app.
I wrote a story for Awful Announcing https://awfulannouncing.com/tennis/french-open-mic-players-coaches-2025.html that featured TNT’s plans to interview coaches mid-match and players on the practice court. Thus far it does not appear to have found many takers. Ben Shelton’s coach/dad did two interviews, but those were the only examples cited by a TNT spokesman. Tennis is change resistant, and coaches are generally employees of the players, who generally want the focus of their box squarely on the court. Bryan Shelton is not just the coach but the player’s father, and seems very laid back. Yes there are other parent coaches, but most hail from countries and regions not dripped in the US sports culture that allows for more media access to athletes and coaches.
I do hope TNT keeps plugging away at it, I found Shelton pere compelling. After his son lost set points to Carlos Alcaraz, Shelton after that first set not only agreed to be interviewed, he talked about his son losing in straight sets previously to Carlito and how it would be interesting to see how he responded. No crazy tennis dad here. Shelton won the second, but lost the next two. Given Shelton junior had been 0-9 in sets at Grand Slams versus players in the top five, the Sheltons are headed in the right direction
I was rather hoping that Nick Kyrgios would be on again. He gave added value to the last few slams but I know he rubs some of the oldies up the wrong way. Such a pity he got involved in the Sinner thing - they let him take the rap for what they were all thinking and still do. Just a matter of inequality of treatment similar to the Musetti case yesterday. To sideline him would be a pity. His injuries are obviously too serious, as predicted by his surgeon, to come back. Delpo never did. It's the big servers that suffer most. Please get Nick back on. Could replace the McEnroes like a dream.
Who is the smarmy non-tennis guy at the desk with CoCo V, Chris Eubanks, Sloane Stephens & Sam Query? He is so insincere and his interviews with players are so cringe 🤡