Wimbledon viewer fury with Nick Kyrgios match over Ash Barty
Update: " We screened as much of Ash’s one-sided game as we could," says Seven.
- Published by David Knox
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Tennis fans took to social media last night to vent their anger at Seven, which was screening a Nick Kyrgios- Jordan Thompson match from Wimbledon at the same time as Court 1 match between Ash Barty – Saisai Zheng.
Via 7TWO’s “megawall” viewers were forced to swing between both matches intermittently, which may have been the most frustrating solution of all.
Despite progressive score updates, viewers were unable to watch the single match of their choice.
Meanwhile FOX Sports had the Barty game in full.
Update: A Seven spokesperson said: “Nick Kyrgios and Jordan Thompson were tied in the third set of a thrilling contest when Ash walked onto court. We screened as much of Ash’s one-sided game as we could and enabled Foxtel to broadcast it in full.
“The massive audience ratings on 7TWO, which were comparable to a Wimbledon Final, show how engaged Aussies were in the epic five setter between Kyrgios and Thompson.”
https://twitter.com/ProtschkySusie/status/1146038397800075264
#Wimbledon19 The broadcaster with the free to air rights in Aus isn't showing the Ash Barty game. #owngoal @7Sport
— Angela Budai (@Outspoken_Ange) July 2, 2019
This is crap, I was looking forward to watch Ash Barty on @Channel7 tonight, why am I watching Kyrgios v Thompson?? I feel like I've been snubbed !! 🥺 #Wimbledon
— ⚫️⚪️ JAKE ⚫️⚪️ (@IncrediblyBozza) July 2, 2019
Now we're only getting score updates from the Barty match, wtf are you doing @channel7? #Wimbledon #Wimbledon2019
— Adrian Oter (@Daredevil191) July 2, 2019
13 seconds! We just got the Barty match on the side of the Kyrgios match for 13 seconds. Not. Good. Enough.
— LB (@lb87_lb87) July 2, 2019
Yes, Channel 7 should be showing Barty ahead of Kyrgios-Thompson, but it’s pretty hard to cut away from a match like this. Need the two channels running simultaneously. #wimbledon
— Nick Sculley (@sculls_6) July 2, 2019
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41 Responses
The Krygios v Thompson game was put on court 3 specifically so that Seven could show it at 8pm on 72. They planned to show the Barty game later, but it’s live sport and things didn’t pan out that way, so they let Foxtel have the Barty game.
Anyone who thinks that Seven should have ditched a tight best of 5 set match between two Aussies in the middle, for a best of 3 set match, where Barty was playing doubles specialist who doesn’t even have a competent serve, which took just over an hour doesn’t understand either sport or TV ratings.
The ratings at night aren’t enough for Seven to by more than one game so they were going to piss off people either way. It was a choice between tennis fans and culture warriors on social media.