Australian Open Tennis Championships to be aired by Fox Sports, Seven Network
The Australian Open Tennis Championships from 2011 up to 2014 will air on Fox Sports. The subscription television coverage is the result of an agreement signed by Fox Sports and the Australian company Seven Network.
Announcing the agreement, Seven's Head of Sport, Saul Shtein said: "We're pleased to be working once again with Fox Sports on a broad coverage of The Australian Open across broadcast and subscription television."
Under the terms of the agreement, Fox Sports will have live access to matches on courts outside of Rod Laver Arena. These courts include Hisense Arena and Margaret Court Arena. Matches on Centre Court at Rod Laver Arena will be exclusively live on Seven. Seven Network will continue to have the rights to broadcast matches on all courts on live or delayed coverage, which ensures that the matches are still available on Seven's free-to-air broadcast television platform.
Tennis Australia CEO, Steve Wood commented that: "We are fortunate to be in a position with our free to air and pay television partners that will see Australian Open 2011 broadcast live to more people than ever before. Together with our broadcast partners we will continue to build tennis, both as a spectator and television sport to increase the audience, as well as boost participation and get more people playing more tennis more often."
Seven's coverage of The Australian Open dominates television across January. The Men's Final delivered a peak audience of 3.17 million viewers while the Women's Final delivered a peak audience of 2.43 million. More than 9.2 million Australians across the five major metropolitan markets watched all or part of Seven's coverage of The Australian Open in 2010.