Tennis Channel, NBC, Peacock? French Open TV mess leaves US fans adrift

On Tuesday night in Paris, in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic contested yet another epic contest in their immortal rivalry. It was a thrilling affair full of ferocious offensive firepower and jaw-dropping defensive escapes with Nadal emerging as the victor in four grueling sets, making the Spaniard a heavy favorite to claim his 14th French Open title.

This current generation of tennis fans is perhaps the most spoiled, entitled lot of followers of any sport ever, having been gifted the remarkable array of matches between Nadal, Djokovic and, of course, Roger Federer. For nearly 20 years whenever one of them is playing in a major tournament, it’s been appointment viewing.

Yet for many fans in the United States during this French Open, there has been a bit of confusion and frustration when attempting to figure out where exactly to view the matches. And even when it was clear which network would be broadcasting the event on a given day, many millions of Americans were still left out due to limitations within their cable/streaming TV lineup.

Most of the matches during the French Open have been carried by Tennis Channel, including the Nadal-Djokovic encounter. For the more serious tennis fan, having Tennis Channel at home is a must and since the channel’s inception it’s been an extraordinary network that fills almost all the fan’s needs with comprehensive coverage of most tour events.

Tennis Channel is now in approximately 60m households, according to the latest estimates, and that is indeed a sizable number. The network has seen tremendous growth. But that’s still 20m to 30m fewer households than ESPN reaches (the network which carries wall-to-wall coverage of the other three slams). Which