David Farnor | On 14, Aug 2018

Jimmy Connors, Jim Courier and Annabel Croft are joining Amazon Prime Video’s line-up of TV presenters for its streaming of the US Open this summer.

Amazon Prime Video will bring customers in the UK and Ireland live and exclusive coverage of the US Open, which takes place from 27th August to 9th September 2018 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York.

The first time a major tennis tournament has been available exclusively on a streaming service, Amazon’s coverage will include multiple streams from several courts, catch up highlights and full-match replays. Prime Video will have a studio on-site at the US Open and will expand their presenting, studio expert and commentary team building on their live studio coverage of the Fever-Tree Championships at The Queen’s Club and the Nature Valley International from Eastbourne earlier this summer.

Greg Rusedski and Daniela Hantuchova will return as experts and will now be joined by former world number one, four-time Grand Slam winner and US Open finalist Jim Courier along with former player and established analyst and commentator Mark Petchey and former British number one Annabel Croft. Catherine Whitaker will return to host coverage alongside BBC Radio 4’s sports correspondent Karthi Gnanasegaram, a new addition to the team. Further commentary will be provided by Robbie Koenig, Nick Lester, Sam Smith, Arvind Parmar, Barry Cowan and Susan Thearle, alongside Anna Whiteley, who will act as as on-site reporter in New York. Finally, with the tournament celebrating its 50th Anniversary, former world number one, eight-time Grand Slam winner and five-time US Open champion Jimmy Connors will complete the expanded Prime Video line-up, providing in-studio analysis as well as commentary.

Prime Video’s live multi-stream coverage of the US Open will begin daily at 4.00pm BST and finish at approximately 4.00am BST. There will also be a daily highlights show and a replay of the top Day Session match at approximately 9.00pm BST. Full-day highlights will be available on-demand from approximately 7.00am each day, showing the previous day’s coverage highlights. One ‘match of the day’ will also be available on-demand, as well as replays of all quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals for men’s and women’s singles matches.

Coverage of the US Open will be followed by further live coverage of the Laver Cup next month (21st -23rd September) from the United Center, Chicago. Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic will lead Team Europe, and Juan Martin del Potro, John Isner, Kevin Anderson, Diego Schwartzman and Nick Kyrgios are confirmed for Team World, with further player announcements to be made in the coming weeks. Prime Video is set to stream all Laver Cup matches live and on-demand to Prime members in more than 200 countries.

38 ATP World Tour events will also be shown exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in the UK and Ireland from 2019 to 2023 including all ATP World Tour Masters 1000s, twelve of each of the 500s and 250s, and the Next Gen ATP Finals.

In the meantime, here’s a US Open trailer:

 

 

Amazon nets exclusive UK rights to US Open tennis

20th April 2018

Amazon Prime Video has netted the exclusive live telecast rights to the US Open Tennis Championships in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.

The five-year agreement begins with the 2018 US Open, with live match play from the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and match highlights plus other content available to Prime Video viewers in both territories.

“This new partnership allows the USTA to showcase our live and on-demand content to Amazon Prime Video members throughout the U.K. and Ireland,” says Lew Sherr, USTA Chief Revenue Officer. “We are excited to market the telecasts via Prime Video and provide fans more ways to watch tennis matches.”

“Prime Video is focused on bringing customers a great selection of high-quality entertainment across drama, comedy, documentaries, live sports and more,” adds Jay Marine, Vice President, Prime Video Europe. “We are delighted to now offer Prime Video members US Open tennis at no extra cost to their membership, right alongside their favourite shows and movies.”

“We are proud to partner with the USTA to add the US Open to the growing portfolio of sports available on Prime Video,” comments Alex Green, Managing Director, Channels & Sports, Prime Video Europe. “This prestigious event, along with the other exciting tennis coming this year and next, makes Prime Video a destination for tennis fans.”

The 2018 US Open takes place ‪from 27th August to 9th September‬ in Flushing Meadows, NY. The 2018 US Open marks the 50th Anniversary of the US Open, and also will be the first US Open played upon the completion of the $600 million transformation of the National Tennis Center. 2018 will see the inaugural season of the new ‪Louis Armstrong‬ Stadium, a 14,000 seat state-of-the-art facility, which is the final piece of an expanded facility that has been more than 90% transformed.

The deal follows an agreement between Amazon and the ATP, which has given it the rights to streaming almost all major men’s tennis matches, except for the four grand slams (Wimbledon, the US, Australian and French Open), including the Masters 1000 and Masters 500 events, such as Monte Carlo, Madrid, Miami and Shanghai, not to mention the end-of-year ATP World Tour finals at The O2 in London.

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