French Open Heading For ITV4

I see that from next year the French Open will be screened live by ITV4 who have signed a three year deal. Full story here:-

http://www.itv.com/sport/itv-wins-rights-to-roland-garros-french-open-tennis/

Interesting news and not sure what to make of it as ITV have no experience whatsoever of covering tennis.

Excellent. I can't wait to see whether they'll go to ad breaks between games or between points.

Can we set up an online petition to have Ortis Deley presenting it please?

Was the FO on Sky or ESPN last time around, I cant remember.
Interesting to see if they aim to show more coverage of tennis.

With BBC sharing the rights for F1 with Sky from next season, you think ITV are trying to get their 'foot in the door' should Wimbledon be an opportunity for them if the BBC continue with cut backs?

Eurosport showed it (apart from when they decided to stop showing it mid-match in order to show some boring bicycle race) and I think the BBC showed a few of the more interesting matches on BBC & the red button.

I'm not sure about that Y I Man, the BBC has just extended their deal to broadcast Wimbledon to 2017.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/15470325.stm

Yes as Marcus says last few years it has been on a combination of Eurosport and the BBC Interactive (red button) service. According to that link I posted ITV4 are promising six hours of live coverage a day.

Good. Boring tournament on a channel no one will watch anyway.

Actually, that was harsh. It's probably just me who despises clay court tennis. BBC still got Wimby and Aussie Open, right?

The French Open isn't boring!! The crowd might be bores, but the matches aren't.

Unless your name is Nadal, the clay is a real leveller, and you get more close matches in the early rounds than at any other slam.

That's one of the reasons I hate the FO. No disrespect to the French, but the French crowd are far more irritating every year than the USO crowd were this year.

I bet if Murray was actually good on clay I'd change my mind

I think it's great news.

I am happy with the news. Eurosport have very much killed interest with their bizarre scheduling. It is hard to cast judgment over how well they will do until we first hand what kind of coverage they offer. I can't wait.

Great to see another tennis major will be shown daily on a terrestrial channel.

Are Eurosport going to be broadcasting alongside?

And the finals on UTV/ITV1 - will get more views than BBC2. Remember, BBC had it on the red button, which was good but isn't marketed that well. This will be on an actual channel.