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ABC cancels Hopman Cup broadcasts

Perth's Hopman Cup now hangs in the balance after ABC executives finally confirmed it would no longer broadcast, after 15 years on air.

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Perth’s Hopman Cup now hangs in the balance after ABC executives finally confirmed it would no longer broadcast, after 15 years on air.

It follows months of speculation and the event almost being shelved by the ABC in 2009.

“ABC TV has confirmed it is withdrawing as broadcast partner of the Hopman Cup Tennis Tournament after 15 years covering the event. It was a difficult decision, made after careful consideration and a full review of the ABC’s involvement with the tournament,” ABC Director of Television Kim Dalton said in a statement.

“While we acknowledge the organisers have gone to some lengths to make the event more attractive to audiences, ABC Television is pursuing a strategic direction that focuses on women’s, regional and Paralympic sport.

“Unfortunately, the ABC broadcast of the Hopman Cup no longer aligns with this strategy.

“The ABC and the Hopman Cup have enjoyed a long and productive relationship and the ABC wishes organisers every success for future tournaments.”

Tournament boss Paul McNamee said after this year’s final that the ABC’s decision would be critical to the future of the tournament. But he had been hopeful a rejig of the schedule this year might have swayed the national broadcaster.

Earlier this year ABC’s Four Corners documented behind-the-scenes politics of Tennis Australia events, questioning the Seven Network’s commitment to sports over ratings. But it said nothing about its own hesitations with the future of the Hopman Cup.

Source: WA Today

24 Responses

  1. Kuttsywood: seven already broadcasts the brisbane international which is on at the same time, so they can’t do it and it’s so upsetting because this year I would have loved to watch Kvitova, Wozniacki, Gajdosova, Hewitt, Fish, Berdych and many other great players!

  2. What a shame that ABC no longer covers Hopman cup – no more live coverage only delayed telecast to allow for adverts and a time slot that is not much help to people who have to work the next day – I’m really disappointed as the competition is great.

  4. this will be the end of the tournement. fox only wanted to show the night matches and they were only taking the abc feed. tennis australia needs to fix the tv rights something cronich

  5. Some channel or another will pick up the event. Perhaps now is the time to ask if the ABC will screen any TV sport in future. ONE, with it’s individual state feeds, could easily broadcast the state league football. Given that it already broadcasts all major league netball matches, why not a match or two a week of WNBL and W-League too? This would leave the ABC with delayed lawn bowls coverage and the Paralympics.

    If there is a commitment to “regional” sport, then why was the state league football removed from ABC2? If there is a commitment to women’s sport, why is it not covered more on Outsiders and the nightly news bulletins?

  6. This is sad. I mean, I love Hopman Cup, it is an incredible event with good players participating. And ABC normally has zero commercial breaks, which we don’t normally get when we watch sports on 7, 9 or ONE.

    I do hope ONE can pick it up.

  9. ONE would make a perfect home although it could be difficult for ONE to broadcast because of the other commitments they have so maybe FOX Sports could just cover it. I mean they already did the night matches.

    This is such a shame though and when i saw that Tennis special on the ABC about Seven and the inside of tennis etc i was thinking “But what about you guys and The Hopman Cup?” Maybe even SBS could pick it up i mean they havent got anything on during that time anyway so even them. Seven couldnt show it unless it was on 7TWO. They have too much tennis already.

  11. I’m echoing the thoughts of most people here, but I hope ONE picks this up – it’s a great tennis tournament, very different to other tennis tournaments broadcast in summer and so it would be a shame not to have this on FTA. ONE needs to bulk up their summer line up (2009-2010 summer was awful) and so this would be a great fit. Would also be good to ensure 7 has some competition r.e. tennis coverage on commercial television.

  13. Definitely a logical choice for ONE – given their local sports cupboard was a bit bare over last summer. But where does Fox Sports stand in all of this – since they’e also been broadcasting the Hopman Cup.

  14. When the ABC owned the rights to Hopman Cup, it sold the rights to night matches to Fox Sports. That’s why you saw the tournament on the channel.
    Hopman Cup will be a perfect fit for ONE, but it will be affected by the channel’s commitment to NFL and basketball (NBA and NBL). So if ONE gets it, you may see some matches on Ten.

  18. That sucks. I love watching the Hopman Cup because it was always entertaining and the players made it entertaining. It was a good event to watch into the lead up of the Australian open. That means we won’t see good old Lucy Hopman anymore. Maybe Foxtel will pick it up.

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