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FOX Sports Australian Open: update

Some readers have been asking about no Viewer's Choice Red Button in FOX Sports coverage of the Australian Open this year.

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2013-01-17_1930Some readers have been asking about no Viewer’s Choice Red Button in FOX Sports coverage of the Australian Open this year.

Their response is below:

Thank you for your feedback and for tuning in to FOX SPORTS’ LIVE coverage of the 2013 Australian Open Championships. We will continue to provide coverage of the best possible matches, within our scheduling limitations, LIVE and in High Definition throughout the first eight days of the tournament on FOX SPORTS 3HD & FOX SPORTS 3. However, regrettably due to decline in usage of our multi-court (red button) service for the Australian Open over the past two years, FOX SPORTS has decided not to continue with its multi-court coverage of the tournament in 2013.

15 Responses

  1. The did use the red button — to show a Twenty20 game!

    This year a lot of the Australian players and good looking female players where on Arenas 2 and 3. So channel 7 often ignored the main match on RLA and showed exactly what Foxsport was covering.

    It really doesn’t make much sense for Foxtel to bother with live coverage (like the aren’t for the second week) since it is only rating in the 10s of thousands. They probably won’t bother in future.

  3. The real problem is within the current broadcasting agreement between Seven, Fox Sports and Tennis Australia.
    Fox Sports has rights to broadcast live matches from Hisense Arena, Margaret Court and the Show Courts. Channel 7 meanwhile has exclusive access to Rod Laver Arena and has the right to jump to other matches.
    Hopefully things could be different when the a new agreement takes place next year.

  4. regrettably due to decline in usage of our multi-court (red button) service
    ======================================

    Pray tell how in the hell would they know who uses the red button? unless everyone has their stb connected via phone which I don’t

  5. I dont think its Fox Sports fault that they sometimes have the same match that Seven is showing. Fox can’t show the main match on Rod Laver so they show the second best match, then when there is nothing on centre court Seven start to show the second best as well. That would be Seven’s fault. Looks awesome in HD on Fox too, Seven’s SD is a disgrace in comparison.

  7. To make this even funnier, Sky Sports in New Zealand have multi court coverage and we don’t. Disgraceful Foxtel.

    I was listening to an interview with the head of Fox Sports a few months back, he said he wanted a bigger slice of the Australian open. Turns out they don’t.

  8. That’s just plain stupid! Fox Sports. no wonder your ratings for the Australian Open this year have dropped significantly from last year. That’s what you deserve!!! David and is it only for this year or long term? Because it sounds like it’s only for this year in 2013, according to how they responded.

  9. Not only is the red button an issue, but the fact that they show exactly the same game as seven, is rather poinltess. Isn’t the point of foxtel an alternative to FTA? When Djokovic or Federer is playing and both networks show unknown Aussies, just because they’re Aussies, and we miss some of the best players in the world. I’ll just have to wait for week two when only the top players remian to watch some decent tennis. This morning’s turning out to be quite the rant lol.

  10. Not good enough from fox sports. They want to be a leader in sports, they should have multi court coverage at all slams or at least the ability to view different courts online. Otherwise I just view them by other means, fox sports you lose viewers there. Do they have a contact email address?

  11. I have been really disappointed with that this year…. I wondered if it had something to do with The Aus Open website which has live streaming of most courts….. But not if you live in Australia….

  12. Thats all good and well Fox Sports but why do Channel 7 and yourselves keep showing the same matches at the same time so there is no choice as to what the viewer can watch?
    This has happened more thatn 5 times so far and for extended periods of up to an hour or more. I believe there are 7 courts which have television coverage, The other day we had no choice but to watch 2 Aussies nobody has heard of for 3 hours on both 7 & and Fox. At least give us some choice

  13. Problem is this year seems to be the first time where Fox and Seven seem to be continually showing the exact same match. They may as well rename themselves 7Mate for this week – because they’ve been channel 7 HD for games, if you have HD.

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