Phil Huang

NBC Coverage of French Open 2009 Men’s Semifinals SUCKS ONCE AGAIN

See my rant last year about NBC’s POOR coverage of the French Open semi-finals here. Well NBC sucked it up once again this year. As tennis fans know, Federer is arguably the most popular tennis player, despite being ranked #2. He is on the brink of making history, going for his 14th major to tie Pete Sampras and the career grand slam. NBC had exclusivity which means no other channel could air or live stream the French Open men’s semifinals today. Their coverage today was also limited to just a 10 AM to 1 PM time slot. What do they decide to do?

Instead of airing the 5th set of Soderling vs. Gonzalez live and then covering Federer v. Del Potro, they decide to air a taped replay of Soderling/Gonzalez. So there was NO live coverage of Federer’s semifinal match in the US. NBC, you suck. You suck so much, it’s ridiculous. Your tennis ratings probably suck because you air taped replays, packed with commercials, of matches people don’t want to see. If you can’t cover the tournament properly, then don’t cover it all you jackasses!

I ended watching a crappy (unauthorized) live stream of the match online. So NBC, you fail, because this is what most people did instead of watching frickin Soderling/Gonzalez. Everyone else is going to watch a replay on the Tennis Channel. NBC is airing a replay tomorrow for chrissakes. Seriously, can’t the ATP have another channel cover the event? Why does it have to be NBC? They just can’t or refuse to alter their schedule on weekdays for tennis. It’s so stupid and it just hurts tennis and its fans. If the ATP wants to make tennis more popular, the major events need at least have proper coverage.

To people just getting upset about this, NBC does this every damn year and it’s especially bad with the semifinals because it falls on a weekday and they just refuse to alter their schedule for it. And they refuse to let anyone else air it. It’s like, if we can’t do it, no one else can either. NBC, you suck. NBC sucks. NBC fails. NBC is the worst. There you go, those words enshrined forever on the Internetz.

But it was a good match and congrats to Federer for fighting back and making it through to the finals.

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Comments

5 responses to “NBC Coverage of French Open 2009 Men’s Semifinals SUCKS ONCE AGAIN”

  1. Orlando

    You are absolutely Right !!!!! Cover it properly, or don’t cover it ALL.

    Reply
  2. CRISTINA

    Ok, get this how much NBC sucks!! we are watching the Bryan brothers play in the double finals at Wimbledon… they are down 0-3 in the 4th set. But after they finish, the Williams sisters are supposed to play the doubles final… and NBC will NOT show it because they have to show some taped golf show… this is the biggest crap I have ever seen. Last year olympics coverage was pittyful too… We are getting satelite TV… I had it with these networks… John MacEnroe is one of the commentators on today’s Wimbledon broadcast…doesn’t he have any pull in saying what should be shown, especially if you have Americans in the Wimbledon finals on the 4th of July???

    Reply
  3. Paul Neale

    Hey it’s 2011 and the story remains the same!

    Reply
  4. Philip

    There are some changes going this year which makes the situation much better on the East coast but unfornately still sucky on the West Coast, but there’s hope!

    Info here:
    http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2011/06/french-open-roger-federer-novak-djokovic-.html

    Both matches will be carried live and NBC will stream the second semi whenever it does start. No tape delay except on the West coast. But you can watch the live stream.

    Reply

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