Australian sports fans have been left disappointed after SBS was left unable to provide live free-to-air coverage of Australian player, Ashleigh Barty in the quarter-finals of the French Open.
SBS secured free-to-air rights to the tournament from Fox Sports. However, the deal restricts the government-owned broadcaster from televising matches that occur before 10:30 pm AEST.
A day of rain in Paris caused the match featuring Barty to be moved to an early Thursday timeslot.
Live coverage of the Barty/Keys match was broadcast on Fox Sports via Foxtel and Kayo, while SBS was restricted to broadcasting the Anisimova/Halep women’s quarter final from centre court.
The French Open tennis tournament is not included in the Australian broadcasting anti-siphoning list, meaning pay-tv broadcasters are not compelled to offer free-to-air broadcasters an opportunity to secure coverage.
A spokesperson for SBS confirmed to TV Blackbox the network was disappointed in being unable to broadcast the Barty/Keys match live;
“The match schedule is determined by the host broadcaster in France and some matches have been scheduled outside of the terms of the SBS broadcast agreement.”
“We have scheduled a match day highlights program at 4.30pm daily on SBS to capture extended coverage of the tournament. Match highlights, player interviews and video extras are also available anytime for catch up on our Sport website and via SBS On Demand.”
**UPDATE**
SBS has secured broadcast rights for Ash Barty in the Semi-Finals at Roland-Garros tonight. Barty will take on Amanda Anisimova LIVE, FREE and in HD
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So if it’s a timing issue, why can we see the live stream of the Halep quarter final, which is happening at the same time as the Barty match? It makes no sense that we can see one but not the other, and if we can only get one, why not the Barty match?
So will the semi final be televised live?
Why, why, why isn’t the French Open – a MAJOR sporting event included in the government’s anti-syphoning list? Isn’t a grand slam tennis tournament considered a major sporting event? Here we have – an exciting Australian female player in the semi finals (which we also won’t see) and the public viewing is restricted to those wealthy enough for pay TV. Not good enough.
(1) The anti-siphoning laws are only in respect of major sporting events which have Australian national significance (that’s why for example, US Superbowl isn’t included). Additionally, all the anti-siphoning laws do is provide a right of first refusal for free to air, it DOESN’T guarantee that those sporting events must be shown on free-to-air.
(2) Foxtel have the broadcast and streaming rights to the French Open. SBS have been able to get a sub-licensing arrangement with Foxtel. Based on the SBS publicised schedule (and my previous viewing) the rights which SBS has are for Centre Court matches only (these are usually the "best" matches as the organisers schedule the best players on centre court). People complaining about how in 2019 there are multi-channels and streaming options which means that SBS should be able to show all matches clearly don’t understand the licensing arrangement.
(3) There is no reason why SBS needed to obtain these sublicensing rights from Foxtel. It costs money and arguably SBS are losing money on this deal. Unfortunately, it means we don’t get to see all matches, but it’s better than nothing.
(4) Unfortunately, with the rain delays, Ash won’t be playing on Centre court in the semi-finals either (the two men’s semis will be on Centre court – and will be broadcast live on SBS). Hopefully Ash makes it into the final (that match will be shown live on SBS).