US Open Unavailabilityof matches on catch up

[staylor]

Does anyone at NOW actually look at this board, can anyone tell me?  I’d appreciate a solid answer why we are not getting the US Open Tennis on catch up.  In the UK it is virtually impossible to watch matches during the night and we rely on catchup.  I went in today fairly confident of seeing Carlos Alcaraz, the No. 1 men’s seed, on catch up as he played last night.  the only match from last night that I can see is Venus Williams, of all people.  What are they thinking of?  They still have 2 matches to view from day 1.  surely it is not beyond the wit of NOW/Sky to update with last night’s matches?  If they want an example of good presentation, they should look at Prime.  I believe Sky are taking all tennis from next year.  If this is true, I despair if this is the sort of service they are expecting to offer.

[SweetBlitz]

@Gazzzy you can with now tv and Roku devices, but I agree that it should be possible to rewind to the start of the match.  Makes me glad I currently have Sky sports via Virgin with 16 screens and TiVo.

[thissucks]

I could not agree more. This NowTV US Open coverage is such a scam. I cannot believe I paid money for this - I bought the month only for the US Open and can't watch anything. They are showing Katie Boulter now over Sinner, Zverev and Isner? The replays they offer are horrible as well. I miss tennis on Prime & Discovery+ so much right now. Such a shame to miss out on so many epic matches because of no replays...

[SweetBlitz]

Regarding catch up, I feel your pain as when GAA was on Sky, catch up was hit and miss.  You couldn’t even search for GAA and it was only thanks to the now tv employees providing links I was able to watch games.  Nowadays GAA is all on GAAGO and BBC so it is far better if you cannot watch the games live.

[pat100]

Another US Open benchmark, if you happen to live in Australia, is Stan Sports who MIGHT even beat Prime. At half the price of NowTV. 

[SweetBlitz]

Now/Sky TV costs are mainly down to football.   Fans of other sports pay that premium.

[djvh]

yeah, consumers REALLY hate bundling. Sky really love it, they want to pretend it's still the 80s and you need a satelite dish and a TV in your living room, pay for 100 channels when you only want one, and be happy about whatever they choose to put on the channel you actually care about too - currently going so far as to actively kill non-television streaming options SIXTEEN YEARS after netflix streaming launched.

Their commercial prerogative; we just have to hope they decide it's not a worthy investment next time round because not enough extra subscribers paid them money to cover the cost they sunk.

Demand a refund and don't re-subscribe next year - they're thrilled if you begrudgingly pay and grumble, because you paid; they want your money not your satisfaction & goodwill.

[SweetBlitz]

I must admit I see no need for the 190 channels I get on virgin to mainly watch TNT Sports.  It is cheaper to pay for all 190 channels than TNT standalone.    I agree, the world of Sky and cable is very 20th century.  I mainly have Now for Sky Atlantic access, one of the channels that’s not on Virgin.

[QuietJohn]

Has anyone actually read exactly what was on offer in the run up to this tournament? Go back and look at the advertising... it states quite specifically (and rather misleadingly!) that they are offering a minimum of 135 hours of competion.

At an average of 3 hours per match 135 hours gives you 45 matches. There are 128, that's one hundred and twenty eight matches in the FIRST ROUND alone! Why have they chosen to advertise such a pitifully low allegedly minimum offering? It sounds rather like they had no intention of broadcasting the entire tournament, or they could have said they were offering UP TO 4 or 5 hundred hours of content to pick and chose from. There is a petition here-

https://www.change.org/p/sky-s-tv-coverage-of-the-us-open-is-shameful-the-atp-wta-and-lta-should-dem...

Please sign it and have your voice heard.

[AlanS]

At the moment (17:00 on 1st September), only one stream is available, so things are getting worse!

I agree with everything that's been said here about poor coverage and lack of replays.

In the end, the WTA and ATP have decided to take a big wad of cash rather than caring about tennis fans. The end result will be fewer people watching tennis in this country, but the WTA and ATP won't be bothered about that.

The last few years of tennis on Prime have been great - I've watched tennis almost every day (apart from the end of year gap), but I'm just going to have to wean myself off it before the end of the year. It's very, very depressing.

[SweetBlitz]

Sky have a 5 year deal with ATP until 2028.   I suspect ATP don’t understand the nuances of the coverage in individual jurisdictions.