Sky is bringing a brand-new channel — a first of its kind — to Sky Sports and NOW (formerly NOW TV) subscribers this month. Sky Sports Tennis will start broadcasting from February 11. As the name suggests, it will be home to tennis all-day, every day of the week.
Expect 4,000 live matches from 80 tournaments on the ATP and WTA Tours, as well as extensive coverage of the US Open. According to Sky, that’s more live tennis than anywhere else on UK screens.
Sky Sports Tennis is only possible because of the acquisition of broadcast rights for the US Open, ATP Tour, and WTA Tour by Sky last year.
Amazon’s Prime Video streamer held the rights to both ATP and WTA tours. For the last three years, subscribers were able to stream live coverage of the tournaments at no additional cost. Prime Video is available as a standalone subscription for £5.99 a month, but it’s also bundled as a perk with Amazon Prime membership, which offers next-day delivery, music streaming, and Kindle books.
Despite the high-profile loss of tennis coverage, Prime Video still holds the rights to a number of high-profile sports, including football’s Champions League and rugby union’s Autumn Nations Series. It’s also home to sport documentaries, like the popular All Or Nothing series.
Prime Video held the broadcast rights for ATP, WTA, and US Open until 2023, with all tennis matches available at no extra cost for those with a Prime Video or Amazon Prime subscription
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If you’re already subscribed to the Complete, Action and Arena packages with Sky Sports, you’ll spot the new channel appearing in your TV Guide on February 11, 2024. Viewers will be able to access live court streams simultaneously via the mobile app, the Sky TV app or red button.
If you watch with a Sky Sports membership on NOW, you’ll be able to access more live matches on NOW Bonus Streams. You’ll need to subscribe to the NOW Boost add-on (£6 a month) to upgrade the picture quality of live coverage on Sky Sports channels to 1080p HD at 50 frames per second.
The first week of Sky Sports Tennis will serve up live coverage from the Hologic WTA Tour tournament in Doha, where viewers can watch their favourite players such as Coco Gauff, Ons Jabeur, Aryna Sabalenka, Naomi Osaka and Iga Swiatek.
The action continues with the ATP Tour from Rotterdam, followed by an all-star line-up of Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Andrey Rublev, and Daniil Medvedev on court in Doha from February 19.
Speaking ahead of the launch, Sky Sports Managing Director Jonathan Licht, said: "It's an exciting moment for Sky Sports as we launch a new home for tennis fans, and Sky Sports Tennis will give millions of homes easy access to watch the best players in the world all year round.
“We’re proud to be the undisputed home of live sport for fans in the UK and Ireland, and this new channel will add value for our customers, enabling them to enjoy even more of the sports they love.”
Sky Sports Tennis coverage will be helmed by former top British players Tim Henman and Laura Robson, presented by Gigi Salmon with the well-known voice of Jonathan Overend on commentary.
As well as live coverage, viewers should expect interviews, behind-the-scenes access, and expert insights on some of the biggest matches and moments of the year, Sky says.
On Sky Sports, the channel will be on 408 from February 11, 2024 when the channel becomes live, before moving exclusively to 407 on February 13 where it will remain.
If you want to find the channel using the voice search feature built into Sky Glass, Sky Stream, and Sky Q, you can use the phrase “new balls please” and “it was on the line”, as well as the usual “Sky Tennis”, “Sky Sports Tennis”, or “Tennis channel”.
As well as Sky’s own hardware and NOW streams, Sky Sports Tennis channel will also be available on Virgin Media and the recently relaunched EE TV service.
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Sport coverage continues to be a battleground for subscription services. Apple recently acquired the rights to Major League Soccer (MLS), offering coverage to all subscribers of its Apple TV+ service. Meanwhile, Netflix paid $5 billion for the exclusive rights to WWE’s Monday Night Raw in the US.
