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7Tennis app offers HD upgrade

A 7Tennis app offers free coverage of its Summer of Tennis, but tennis tragics can pay $10 for HD coverage of the Australian Open.

A 7Tennis app will offer Live free coverage of Seven’s Summer of Tennis in 2017, alongside a separate HD offering of the Australian Open for a one-off fee.

The 7Tennis app also includes the Fast 4, Hopman Cup, the Brisbane International, Sydney International and the Kooyong Classic, with over 2,000 hours of live, exclusive tennis, catch-up and on-demand short-form highlights.

Seven will introduce for the first time a freemium offering of the Australian Open with more than 600 matches to Live stream in HD, select long-form full match replays with less commercial content. This is available on Apple iOS and Android devices for a one-off app fee of $9.99.

Clive Dickens, Seven’s Chief Digital Officer, said: “We have listened to our audience and not only do they think all Australian sport should be free but they also told us they would be willing to pay for additional features like HD Streaming, extra content and less commercials. The 7Tennis product is another first to market innovation for Seven that we can’t wait to share with the fans.”

Kurt Burnette, Seven’s Chief Revenue Officer, said: “The 2016 Olympic Games broke records but more importantly through data, analytics and insights gave us clear insights into how consumers view our content across screens. The 7Tennis innovation across all screens is that insight in action in direct response to consumer needs. It also offers our advertisers and marketing partners the ability to be connected with consumers across every part of that customer journey. We will deliver unparalleled reach and effectiveness across connected screens, incorporating the latest in media technology, measurement and consumer insights.”

Saul Shtein, Seven’s Head of Sport said: “The Australian Open is one of our biggest events in sport on Seven, and we look forward to creating a coverage that will capture every key moment and connect with our audiences on every screen. We will be launching some new innovations in our coverage of the Australian Open as we launch into an extraordinary eighteen months for Seven and deliver the biggest events in sports across 2017 and 2018.”

7Tennis

7Tennis will live stream Seven’s coverage of The Australian Open and Seven’s Summer of Tennis and also stream matches on courts beyond Seven’s television coverage. There will be up to 16 live streams of courts at the Open coupled with streams of press conferences and short-form VOD (video-on-demand) content including highlights and archival footage, photo galleries, a social wall with Twitter and Facebook, live scores and results from all matches, player profiles and exclusive produced content beyond Seven’s internationally recognised broadcast.

The Australian Open Tennis Experience

During The 2016 Australian Open, Australian audiences were able to not only choose between matches on Seven and 7TWO, they also had the option of watching one of 16 matches during the day and three at night through smart TVs, mobile, tablet and IOT devices. Around one third of regular viewers of The Australian Open accessed some tennis content on digital platforms every day. There were over 7.4 million streams, with over 40 million minutes of streaming during the Australian Open Series. On social media, global reach hit 21.7 million on Facebook and 7.8 million on Twitter.

16 Responses

  1. So, I signed up for this, being a tennis fan. Not all the matches are in HD. If matches are being broadcast on Seven and it’s not in HD (usually because it’s on a secondary channel) they’re in SD on the app. Basically rather than have HD go to the net and then down convert the HD signal for broadcast, they are simulcasting the broadcast signal. It’s a joke.

  2. Please will the tech/media journalists do a course/study the facts about tv transmission standards .In Australia our HD is a low bit rate transmission ,maybe 1080i but the amount of data hence picture info is very low. Please see TVNZ & BBCHD .

  3. This annoys me on many levels. So they offer the HD streaming for phones but not smart TVs or game consoles? Also charging for HD, that’s so backwards. UK and US streaming services do HD for all programs for free by default.

    Not to mention, if they can do it for this, surely they can do it for the rest of their Seven content with they broadcast in HD. I wish Seven wouldn’t screw us over like this.

  4. 7 Network has finally launched a new HD channel earlier this year! So I don’t see what all the hubbab is about! 7Sports coverage will be in both SD on 7 & 7Two & in HD on 7HD! IMO there is nothing wrong !

  5. So if I want to watch tennis in HD on my new 4k smart TV I have to use their app as Seven main is not in HD in Sydney and pay $10 for it… yet I can watch cricket on Nine HD from broadcast, Big Bash on Ten HD from broadcast live and free in HD.

    The main channel and main games shown on the main channel should be HD in all markets now. Then, other games, and other coverage you have the hardcore fans happy to pay for in HD or to access.

  6. Quote from Saul Shtein from your Olympics article David in regards to Seven HD in all markets. “When we have something like the Olympics, we’ll flick it across.” I would’ve thought the Australian Open is one of the sporting events he would be referring to when he said this. Surely they have to show it in HD in all markets but I’m guessing they deliberately won’t to try to drive people to the app and to pay the HD fee.

  7. So let me get this right.

    In 2016 – 15 years after the rest of the world went HD – Seven and Prime7 (bar the ADL and MEL markets) are STILL not broadcasting in HD – but they are happy to charge $10 to watch HD on mobile phones.

    Brilliant!

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