The French Open will be broadcast in the U.S. for the next 10 years through a deal struck by Warner Bros. Discovery.
- The French Open in the U.S. will be exclusively broadcasted by TNT Sports, a division of Warner Bros. Discovery, starting from 2025.
- In the U.S., the games at Roland-Garros were previously aired on NBC and the Tennis Channel prior to this deal.
- The NBA partnership of Warner Bros. Discovery is being extended as the company enhances its sports offerings.
The French Open, also known as Roland-Garros, will be exclusively broadcasted by TNT Sports in the U.S. starting in 2025, the company announced Tuesday.
According to a source, the French Tennis Federation signed a 10-year contract with an entertainment company for an average of approximately $65 million per year.
Eurosport, a Warner Bros. Discovery-owned channel, has been the global broadcast partner for the French Open since 1989, reaching 55 countries outside the U.S. and hosting 675,000 spectators this year.
TNT Sports Chairman and CEO Luis Silberwasser stated in a release that Roland-Garros perfectly aligns with our global sports strategy and our commitment to adding premium live sports content to our TNT Sports portfolio. We are excited to serve fans with a best-in-class content experience and provide them with direct access to more live Roland-Garros coverage than ever before.
The matches will be live-streamed on TNT, TBS, TruTV, and Max, with simulcasts on all platforms.
The tournament was previously broadcast in the U.S. by NBC, Peacock, and the Tennis Channel through a sublicensing agreement.
TNT Sports will have an on-site presence at the Roland Garros Stadium in Paris, with studio and announcing teams from multiple positions, with further details on coverage to be announced in the coming months.
Warner Bros. Discovery is introducing a joint sports streaming service called Venu with ESPN this fall. Venu will feature TNT, TBS, and TruTV in its channel lineup.
The acquisition of the French Open rights by TNT Sports in the past three years indicates that the company is interested in investing in live sports if the cost is reasonable. In this period, TNT Sports has also obtained rights for the National Hockey League, NASCAR, U.S. Soccer, the College Football Playoffs (through a sublicensing deal with ESPN), and now the French Open.
While NBCUniversal has offered to broadcast live games for TNT Sports, Warner Bros. Discovery is currently negotiating with the NBA to extend its partnership for a different package of games, as reported by CNBC.
Due to the hangover from the Hollywood writers' strike and cost-cutting measures across the industry, including at Warner Bros. Discovery, media giants have been relying heavily on sports to attract larger audiences and generate more advertising revenue.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
— CNBC's Alex Sherman contributed to this report.
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