U.S. Open For Business: ESPN, Tennis Channel Have Ball-to-Ball Coverage
Friday, August 23, 2024 at 03:19PM By Barry Janoff
August 23, 2024: Defending Men’s and Women’s Singles Champions Novak Djokovic and Coco Gauff are in the house, so the 2024 U.S. Open Grand Slam can officially commence.
ESPN platforms will present exclusive coverage of the U.S. Open for the 10th consecutive year, beginning Aug. 26 thru the Women’s Singles Final Sept. 7 and the Men’s Singles Final Sept. 8.
More than 260 hours of coverage will air on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN Deportes, with 550-plus main draw matches on the ESPN App.
ABC will air the U.S. Open both Sundays: the middle Sunday Round of 16 on Sept. 1 and for the first time the Men’s Championship.
ESPN Deportes will have 92 hours of play in Spanish, including the Women’s and Men’s Semi-finals and Championships.
During U.S. Open Fan Week (Aug. 19-25) ESPN platforms this past week have been airing qualifying matches and U.S. Open events from the U.S. Tennis Assn. Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing, NY.
“The U.S. Open is one of the signature events on the sports calendar, and we are pleased to bring its culminating match, the Men’s Final, to tennis fans via ABC,” Tim Bunnell, ESPN svp-programming and acquisitions, said via the network.
U.S. Open partners include American Express, Aperol 1919, Cadillac, Chase, Chubb, Deloitte, Dobel Tequila, Emirates, Evian, Face, Grey Goose, Heineken, IBM, IHG, JPMorgan, La Roche Posay, LavAzza, Moet & Chandon, Mount Sinai, Polo Ralph Lauren, Rolex, Tiffany, Washington DC Tourism and Wilson.
Numerous other brands have attached themselves to the event, such as Wheaties unveiling a cereal box with Gauff on the front.
The U.S. Open an
d ESPN have joined with Alicia Keys’ Broadway musical Hell’s Kitchen on what they called a “first-of-its-kind U.S. Opentheme song,” that will break on Opening Night of the 2024 Grand Slam (Aug. 26).
“Kaleidoscope,” one of Keys’ songs in the 13-time Tony-nominated show (which opened last November in New York’s The Public Theater), will befeatured in this year’s U.S. Open Manifesto Video and throughout the event.
The USTA has its own multi-media campaign, "Spectacular Awaits' ft. Fat Joe."
ESPN, whose platforms have covered the U.S. Open since 2009 and exclusively since 2014, also has its own campaign, “Primetime At The 2024 U.S. Open,” touting its tournament coverage and that the U.S. Open Men’s Singles Championship would air live on ABC (2 PM ET).
A live 60-minute preview show will lead into the live match.
On-air talent includes Darren Cahill, Cliff Drysdale, Chrissie Evert, Mary Joe Fernandez, Chris Fowler, Brad Gilbert, Nick Kyrgios, John McEnroe, Patrick McEnroe, Chris McKendry and Pam Shriver.
Tennis Channel will again have multi-platform coverage of the U.S. Open, including on-site presence, replays, interviews, news, schedules, stats and features.
Tennis Channel Live at the U.S. Open, the network’s daily lead-in show, premieres Aug. 26, beginning two hours per day of news, analysis, highlights and special reports most mornings of the two-week competition.
The network’s Web site and app will provide U.S. Open news and scores throughout the tournament. Visitors will also have access to highlights, statistics, daily orders of play, tournament information, and blogs and stories from the Tennis Channel editorial team.
On-air talent includes Paul Annacone, Chanda Rubin and Prakash Amritraj. Steve Weissman will anchor Tennis Channel Live at the U.S. Open.
The fourth and final tennis Grand Slam of the year will also be the most lucrative, with the USTA saying total prize money for the U.S. Open would rise to a record $75 million, a 15% increase from 2023.
All rounds played this year will see an increase in the prize money awarded from last year.
The men's and women's singles champions will see a 20% jump to $3.6 million each — marking the 51st season of equal prize money for men and women at the U.S. Open.
Last year, singles winners Djokovic and Gauff each took home $3 million out of a total $65 million.
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