Not an American, but I feel your collective pain.

Frankly, at the area of livesteams (that aren't going anywhere), tennis fans are watching it live whether or not it is being broadcasted in the NBC or on TV at all.

Progress just can't be stopped that way.

*falls on asad's neck - sobbing THANK YOU*

This summed everything up ever so much better than I could have hoped to.

One small thing to be added would be to lift the embargo of the wimbledon live coverage. Without that, I saw no doubles, mixed or same sex, no juniors and couldn't 'catch up' on some rather spectacular matches that occurred whilst I was at work.

I, like most tennis fans with access to a computer, watched everything live during those semis. I did not tune in for taped coverage, as it was going on while another match they weren't interested in showing was on.

If they had shown the matches on nbc streams live, at least they would have had me captive there; but i was on other streams. So they not only didn't have me watching any of their coverage, they also managed to generate incredible ill will. In these trying economic times, that just doesn't seem like smart business to me.

Dear Mr. Ebersol -I second Mr. Raza thoughtful critique. There is a corp of highly dedicated tennis fans in the US willing to arise at ungodly hours, fudge their job requirements and abandon loved ones to slumber just to stare at tiny screens showing live tennis. The market for advertisers of No-doz, caffeinated drinks and marriage counselors is there for the taking. By NOT showing live matches on NBC AND embargoing them elsewhere, leaving your audience to the mercies of the internet, you are, to mix metaphors, cutting of your nose to shoot yourself in the foot. Because, as Mr. Raza rightly points out, at some point, that audience isn't going to come back.

Great post! Not many people understand but the fact that a match is live and is happening at that moment is more than half of the appeal. I do not want to know that I can simply look up the score online. I want to be right there with the players wondering what will happen next. For instance, AO final I got up at 3 am to watch, its worth the live match.

The obvious (and probably unnecessary) addendum to the above letter is:
If you do pick up coverage in the middle of a match, you will be appreciated more for showing the match live, rather than a tape delayed version of it.

Nicely done, ray.

Thanks Ray/Asad.

It's unbelievable in this day and age that NBC continues to do this. They do it during the Olympics too. When I heard last year that they have re-upped their contract for Olympics coverage for the next 2 or 3, my first reaction was, "Oh, no".

Television networks go in search of crazy so called reality shows, when in reality they're generally staged and do not make use of live sports' which is there for the taking!

I hope better sense will prevail.

Thanks to Asad for writing this and to Pete for posting it. Rather than just complaining, it explains the practical and emotional reasons that so many of us who love tennis loathe tape delay. Please, NBC, heed our pleas!

Dear Mr. Ebersol - for many of my friends, sporting events are the only television programs that they actually watch on television. Scripted series' they find and download seasons at a time, but sports are best viewed live, and good streams of sporting events tend to be hard to find. As such, I have friends who own televisions only for sports.

The point I'm trying to make, Mr. Ebersol, is that if your network wants to become obsolete, showing tape-delayed sports is a good way to start.

I know I'll probably be pilloried for saying something naive, but here's my question: during the Australian Open, the BBC - although its coverage was by no means comprehensive - had matches running live on its interactive service (for everybody who has digital, which these days is pretty much everybody) and streamed on its website for UK users. Obviously most of those matches took place during the night or at very antisocial hours for UK viewers, so those same matches would be rerun on a loop during the day again on the red button for people who'd had to miss them. NBC must be multi-platform, so even if it doesn't want to show the matches live on TV, can't it do a similar thing?

Also: that picture makes me wibble.

"--imagine if the NFL playoffs were tape-delayed!"

Ray,
If that happened, the circuits would be overloaded and fried. The infamous Heidi show got NBC in trouble in the past when they went off the air with the Jets leading 28-26 but the Raiders scored twice to win 40-28. Also, NBC or any station that did that would probably get death threats from people. Overall, you did a great job in writing the letter to NBC.

This is a very fair, balanced and constructive letter.

I particularly like Asad's suggestion: "Perhaps a provisional solution would be to delay matches, but lift the embargo on other networks or show them live on NBC's website."

An even better solution, IMV, would be to embrace the Wimbledon Live concept for all Grand Slam tournaments and major tournaments. NBC could deliver web based advertising to US customers in the same way it delivers TV ads.

Here's my translation:

Dear Mr. E-- You're screwing tennis fans to the gills, so stop it already! LIVE tennis is the only possibility is this media age, and anything less is just an embarrassment, and by the way, thanks for royally screwing up one of the most historic months in tennis history!

:)

I'm commenting here for the first time to add my voice to the chorus.

It was disappointing not get both Wimbledon semis live. It was annoying to get up early in the morning to watch the Haas-Federer semifinal live on ESPN2, and then to have to wait around for hours before seeing the tape-delayed Roddick-Murray match.

But maybe the most infuriating thing was that the match was shown at the same time in all time zones. As Mr. Raza points out, in this age of constant connectivity, part of the fun of watching a match is texting your friends and relatives, getting on the phone during commercial breaks to compare notes, IM'ing between points. It was hardly possible to do this with my friends on the East Coast, while I was an hour behind in the Midwest.

I did not have a TV around during the final weekend of Roland Garros, so I found a live stream of the finals on the internet. Granted, the commentary was in a language I could not identify, much less understand, and I missed the familiar banter of Carillo and McEnroe and Enberg. But the bad viewing experience of this past Wimbledon has taught me my lesson--next year, if the matches aren't shown live, I'm going straight to my computer. I'd much rather watch a grainy live feed with Romanian or Russian or Polish commentary than have to deal with the tape-delay antics of US network TV.

Maybe my defection to the internet doesn't concern NBC, if the goal in showing tape-delayed afternoon matches is to cater to casual sports fans (and to avoid preempting the morning talk shows), but again, to echo Mr. Raza and some of the comments above, alienating the core audience of American tennis fans does not seem to be in the network's best interest, either.

Pete--I'm a regular reader, and feel bad that this complaint is my first comment. I appreciate all the good content here, and look forward to reading all your posts!

by the way, COurier must have had a change of heart, given his blog in the NY TImes blasting NBC for their coverage, what am I missing?

I didn't watch any of the NBC tape delayed coverage, only watched the live coverage on the Tennis Channel or internet. NBC lost me as a viewer during their tape delays, and I'm in an older demographic at 55 years of age. Come on, NBC, get with it!!

Does it still count as rating if some viewers were taping the live matches in their DVRs? If that's the case, am sure a lot of tennis enthusiastic viewers will do that, should the events happen at ungodly hours (i.e. west coasters).

You can always count on NBC to screw things up and anger sports fans. Just ask any hockey fan what they think of NBC.

I rest my case.

Ebersol is so involved in screwing over the US tennis fan that nothing will change.
But it's good to have a forum to air out this mess.

Probably the most comical moment is when ESPN2 was showing Haas-Djokovic live, and they go off the air.
NBC comes on and shows the tape of the already completed Federer match, and THEN shows a tape of the Haas-Djokovic match.

They couldn't pick that match up live, and then show the Federer tape? Clowns.

It's beyong any kind of logic. I just have to hope that enough mainstream sports columnists like Raismann will goof on Ebersol until he picks another niche sport to screw over.

And ESPN2 does plenty to screw over the tennis fan also. Remember the 2007 Amelia Island semifinal? No? That's because they showed a Sharapova QF replay instead of a live semifinal.

But NBC is the big loser in this category.

Thanks Ray - I agree 100% with the letter. Tape delay killed Wimbledon for me this year. NBC needs to build relationships with ESPN and Tennis Channel to try and come up with a solution that meets their business needs and provides us with live tennis.

In general, I've found that ESPN and TTC work well together on this and the multi-match coverage provided by DirecTV in the 1st week was also fantastic. I can't help feeling that NBC, by partnering with the other networks and not fighting against them, couldn't grow the game and hence their own revenues significantly. For example, instead of pretending that a 5-hour old semi-final is live, giving the live feed to ESPN and then providing a highlight reel of both semi-finals might actually get better ratings amongst normal (ie non-tennis obsessed) people.

I don't have the talent to add anything constructive to Mr. Raza's excellent letter. I'll just leave it with...

NBC also owns MSNBC, Bravo, CNBC, USA. They could use the Olympic format and air live matches on one of their other stations, or they can continue to be

"NBC, Your Grandpa's Breakfast at Wimbledon"

I truly hope that the powers that be at NBC get a sense of the frustration and fury of tennis fans as a result of its coverage, or lack thereof, of the Roddick-Murray Wimbledon semifinal, although it probably won't make a shred of difference since ratings apparently trump all else. I had looked forward to the match for two days and took off work early that Friday to watch it, but ended up watching a grainy live feed on my laptop.

The irony is that the Wimbledon coverage was much better in the early rounds, pre-NBC, than in the later rounds. During the early rounds DirecTV customers could watch live coverage of several matches at the same time, yet I could not watch live coverage of a semifinal in the biggest tournament in tennis between two of the most popular players in the world! That is absurd.

He should have mentioned that they started the tape for the Gonzo-Soderling Semi at almost the exact moment that Fed and Del Potro started their classic match. Ridiculous.

Azad's letter is so reasonable, that I don't feel angry at NBC any more.

Anyways, I should add that with the advent of "illegal" streams, if NBC doesn't get with the program, we're gonna watch it somehow anyway. There are ppl (including me) who are willing to pay to get the matches live...online. Why doesn't NBC want to take advantage? Tennis channel did a wonderful job of archiving the early rounds of RG.

Tim - that wasn't a blog/article by Courier. It was by another writer. The editors included a picture of Courier because the post also mentioned his new CBS gig, thus the confusion.

"And ESPN2 does plenty to screw over the tennis fan also. Remember the 2007 Amelia Island semifinal? No? That's because they showed a Sharapova QF replay instead of a live semifinal."

Tommy,
I remember that one where Davenport w/d due to illness to either her or Jagger. Then, Amelia played the other semifinal b/w Alize Cornet and Dominika Cibulkova but ESPN2 showed the tape delay b/w Sharapova and Alona Bondarenko.

I watched each of these matches on inferior live feeds and never turned on their tape-delayed versions. I want to know how a match is going as it's going on, not after it's done. On my live feed, I saw multiple advertisements for Rolex and one other company.

I don't know what NBC was advertising, and don't care to know.

Holding information hostage for ratings sounds like the kind of thing that a medium might do as it's dying. It's a short-sighted strategy. Live feeds are inferior today, but they won't be for long. One would think NBC would want to have friends and not enemies when that day comes.

It was 2008 Amelia Island. But ESPN2 loves to ignore live tennis at majors and repeat a match it showed earlier in the day, when live matches are still going on. They also love to ignore live matches and show talking heads instead of tennis matches.

NBC has decided that mens semifinals and quarterfinals at majors are irrelevant, and can be taped and replayed like some old Gunsmoke episode.

Writing to NBC is futile. They are going to be dead soon, just like all the rest of the old TV. It's like writing to a sinking Titanic: "excuse me, but you are taking on water". Of course it's taking on water: the ship is doomed! Soon we'll all be flying over the Atlantic, crazy as it sounds!

If you are a tennis fan and you haven't seen all of the great matches at RG and Wimbledon live on the internet, you are a fool.

I totally agree about live events. What I do is go off the internet and don't follow the matches on the computer, so that when I'm watching the tape matches it feels like it is live because I don't know the outcome or score. There is no excitemet to a tape match, you already know the outcome. No fun or excitement.

i'm with ixvnyc. there's always a way on the internet. the more of us who find a way to watch tennis live on the web, the sooner dinosaurs like NBC will get with the (live) programme.

BRAVO!!! Sorry for all caps but it had to be done.:)

I was in Norway during the Wimby final.
they stopped broadcasting on the channel available in my hotel at 1-1 in the fifth!!!
I went downstairs and found a live stream where I saw it with a couple of Brits.
no one in this day and age will settle for tape delay.

When Ashe beat Connors at Wimbledon in 1975 I remember people saying that they heard on the news radio station that Ashe had won and then actually watching the taped match in afternoon. 1In 2000 I was excited to be able follow early Wimbledon rounds with live scores on the internet. In 2009 I'm angry if the live internet feed isn't completely smooth. 10 years from now we won't even remember this tape delay issue--everyone will watch on their own terms. But, for now, it's infuriating.

It's really awful for all american tennis fans to go through this. I don't have this problem since I watch all matches live on ESPN or ESPN2 International but I feel for all you guys when the only option is to watch on a grainy live stream in romanian. Hope NBC settles this soon.

I really enjoy NBC's coverage and a lot of it has to do with John McEnroe calling big matches. He's far better than anyone on ESPN or any other network. I'd love it if NBC were to offer live matches on their website. It would definitely be the type of webcast that has a target advertising audience and I think that the number of viewers that NBC would draw in would more than cover the cost of the webcast.

Wow it is like you were in my head. I was checking Twitter getting updates on the Roddick Semi-Final and when I got home expecting to see a third or 4th set I saw the beginning of the match. I simply turned the TV off I couldn't deal with it.

It is a joke that these matches aren't shown live. We have come to be so corporate in the world that we have to stick to strict time stamps for these networks and contractual obligations that end up screwing the fans more then anything. All they care about is the wallets of the fatcats. Look at the ratings for the Roddick-Federer final. The same could have happened for Saturday with the semi's but NBC fails to recognize this.

This is also partially the All England clubs fault because back in the day it used to be NBC and NBC only doing the broadcasts on the weekend but now for the money they have opened up to allow ESPN to cover a semi-finals match

Pete,

Thanks for addressing this issue. Maybe now, NBC will get the message. I realize that it all boils down to ratings and money, but these days, TV execs need to do whatever it takes to remain competitive. The Internet is pulling more an more people away from their TV sets, and people will find ways to watch live tennis online (free or paid service) if they can't get it on TV.

My computer screen is 15 inches. I can't imagine watching the Super Bowl on my computer.
I bought a big screen tv to watch my favorite sporting events.
Those include important tennis matches at majors, like Nadal's only loss ever at the French Open.
I'd like to see that live on my tv, but Ebersol has made that impossible

Not an American, but I feel I must sympathise with y'all on this one. Not seeing Rafa getting ousted or Fed survive Delpo live must have been excruciating.
NBC, sort yourselves out.

Here's another problem with tape-delayed matches - you can tell by how they're edited how many sets they'll take, which ends up telling you who won. If a network sets aside 3 hours exactly for a tape-delayed match, and the coverage starts with shots of the full warm-up as well as some pontificating in the booth before the first ball is hit, you know it's going to be over in straights and that the network has time to kill - meaning that once the first set is over you already know the outcome of the match, even if you had managed to avoid all news sources that day.

I agree and I am glad that someone is addressing the issue. Why should I not see tennis live? Is it really necessary to watch one more hour of the TODAY show? The TODAY show airs daily; the major tennis tournaments are only 4 times a year! Please show tennis live or allow other networks to show the matches. Watching tennis over the internet is not as fun or enjoyable as watching matches live on your TV.

I don't expect any change next year. The same complaint has been made about the coverage of the last three Olympics and yet they continue to put it on tape-delay. It just shows that NBC still stuck in the ice age (i.e. pre-internet) and has no respect for its audience. I can't believe an outspoken person like McEnroe who professes to love tennis, hasn't complained about it yet. But I guess when your livelihood is on the line, that love goes out the window and you stay quiet.

When someone like Bill Simmons on ESPN.com, a casual fan at best, who has a tremendous following, makes a point to continually blast NBC for their tape-delay coverage, then something's up. Tape-delay is a horrible idea in this day and age, as has been said. It's absurd that the US would actually NOT show games live on TV, that thought is just weird to me.

Furthermore, I, like many other people, will simply choose to go online and find one of the many free online streams. While NBC has nice production values, sports loss the majority of their worth when the outcome is known, and that far outweighs any production values. On a side note, the NBC announcers are awful. Really, really awful. I don't know if they try to gear their announcing towards toddlers making their first foray into ball-sports, but I find their commentary to be ridiculously rudimentary and obvious. But that's a side issue.

Thanks and all, but it's a bit too soft.

Here's the version everyone's (including Asad) thinking of:

Hey Dick (never a first name suited anyone better, I tell ya) E:

First of all, we loved the sightings of you - you sitting majestically smug at the Wimbledon center court (court side no less) enjoying the matches actually live - as we caught the replays on Tape Delay. I hope you at least understand the points, games, sets and matches involved in a tennis match. Do you? If not, Tape Delays might help actually you. By the way, there are no Goals (apart from personal goals of a player – am employing figure of speech here, mind you!) in tennis.

Never mind.

A Television chief and his coterie of nitwits should know and go by an elementary (albeit cardinal) principle “Know Thy Audience”. [insert guffaws]

Who is your audience? Do you know? Do you care? If we aren't your core audience (hail no, I can assure you that), then why grab the rights and why this wanton destruction? We get it. Money for you! This is the only country this could happen - where stupid commerce not only rules the day, but defies logic and goodwill. Why stupid commerce? Well, for all the possible reasons in the age of internet (can't list them all here Dick), NBC actually thinks folks (read idiots) would rather chew their thumbs and wait their turn to catch a Tennis match on NBC. Really? Really! I am sure you tote a blackberry (paid for, of course) or some such device called a Cellular Phone. Do you know that cellular phones are Web enabled!

What is Web enabled?
Well, it is a giant spool of magnetic tape that supersonic jets unspool as they go around the Globe endlessly. These magnetic tapes (much like VCR you see!) contain any and all sorts of information (at times, lo and behold, live videos as well – told you, VCR!) that people might want. What happens to the tapes, how much tapes humanity needs, will these tapes cause Global Warming et al concerns are not pertinent here. I am sure you get the idea here, right? So, cell phones and internet don’t go hand in hand with tape-delays? Do you know that Wimbledon has officially released an application for cellular phones provide live updates? Ask around.

Why Live? Well, let’s say: a kid somewhere, 1 in 100, 1 in 1000, 1 in 10,000, as he or she watches the matches live with his or her parents (or friends) might do two of many things. One, he or she might actually pick up a racket and could become a professional and Two, he or she might actually remember that glorious match and thus could maintain his or her passion for the sport for the rest of his or her life? Do you get it? Of course, not. There are no hard currencies (read Cash) that get exchanged right away in the aforementioned scenarios and so, am sure you have lost interest in this angle already.

Make sure your bonus (and your coterie of nitwits who sit along the board chewing dead air) is going to be good this year. Put some money away for rainy days - given what happened to the Financial markets, its chiefs and the respective coterie of nitwits. Network Television might be dead some day. Even if we don't live to see that day (am sure cockroaches of your ilk live longer) our collective curse in the meantime might actually accelerate it – at least the demise of the No Brains Corporation (NBC).

A fine article -- thank you!! Another thing I wish the networks would fix is who is broadcasting what. Coverage bounces back and forth between NBC, ESPN2 and The Tennis Channel. It's hard for humans to keep it straight. How about if you are a video recorder trying to figure out which "tennis" to record? Then, when coverage switches to another network, viewers very often see the same match they just watched while another match goes uncovered. Actually, I wish they'd do it like they did back in the day: one network gets the rights to do a particular event, period. And as part of getting the rights, a network agrees to provide so many hours of coverage a day. This includes LIVE coverage and then repeat coverage for those who missed it, at least during the second week of a slam. I don't know about many folks out there, but I didn't pay thousands of dollars for an overpriced fancy HDTV so I could squint at a computer monitor to watch a fuzzy sports broadcast. I want it on TV from an easy-to-find source that broadcasts live. Finally, please do not scroll scores across the bottom of the screen! Thanks much.

tommy -- it is actually very easy to output your computer to your television monitor. If you have a laptop take it into your nearest _real_[1] computer store where they can set you up with the right cables.

[1] Not a big box store. Chances are the salesperson there knows less than you about hooking up your system. Depending on your laptop operating system and output options as well as your television monitor you will need specific cables.

This Asad Raza dude is very wise and smart.

I'm sure many a TWiber can concoct a letter as potent as this one, but by golly, given our passionate attachment to this sport and our collective anger at the tape delays during RG and Wimby and how much PAIN - REAL PAIN - it caused many of us, the sh!t would have hit the fan before the letter was complete!

I mean, Dick(head) - oops - Ebersol would have heard it from us!

I mean, we were asking for the guy's head on a plate!

I mean, if Pete had asked any of us to travel half-way around the world to get his "scimitar" to go separate someone's head from their body in NBS studios, we would have gladly obliged!

So, Mr. Raza, bless your heart for such legendary patience, and thanks for taking this bold step for us all!

PS: See y'all in an hour TWibers!

Perhaps if the letter was written by CHRIS EVERT, publisher, this would have some weight. Tape delay is like living in the dark ages! Come on, NBC - do you fear your soap opera fans that much?
I'm relatively sure they all Tivo anyway!

After ESPN's coverage ended everyday, I went straight to the internet. I never even bothered with NBC. I understand everyone's frustration, but clearly NBC is more concerned about appealing to the casual tennis viewer than real fans. Watching tape delayed coverage never even crossed my mind. I would rather stream a live match in Serbian, than hear McEnroe on tape delay.

It is the year 2009! NBC doesn't have to choose either appealing to the tennis fan or casual viewer. It isn't one or the other. They can stream matches online or show live coverage on one of their sister networks. They can still play delayed matches later or add them On Demand for the casual fan. I can't believe we are having this conversation in the 21st century. Honestly, it isn't hurting me to watch illegal streams, it is hurting NBC. I watched Blake and Fish play the semi's via a UK stream. That is ridiculous. We also have the #1 doubles team in the world and we still get no doubles love unless it is the Williams sisters. But I'll save my rant about lack of doubles coverage for a later day...

Thank you for this post. The tape delays really have bothered me this year. If it werent for live streams, i probably wouldnt have watched any of these matches. I just can't watched taped tennis, it ruins the suspense imo. So I hope this problem can be fixed. I'm glad I am not the only one who felt badly about this.

I usually just lurk here like others, but this is too important an issue to stay silent. Thanks for posting this, and Mr. Ebersol, I sure hope you're reading. I didn't watch NBC's delayed coverage -- I opted to watch live on the internet. You lost me. Bigtime. If you want me back, show the matches live, and let the other networks show the matches with no embargoes.

hi all,

to tell the truth, i can't imagine the same thing happening in france, even if the channel holding 3 out of the 4 slams(RG is broacast by national tv live all day !) is something close to HBO, it's a bit costy, about 30euros per month, but you have the slams, the masters, and montecarlo and bercy live, vs tape delay on their sister channel on the cable.
sometimes i'm not courageaous enough to stay up or wake up for the oz or the Uso to wach the matches live... i'm happy to watch tape delay, but it's totaly different since i choosed it.

even with live coverage, you can't avoid the nonsense of watching some pointless first round of bartoli vs bolleli/berdych 5 setter, like this year at RG. so you allways end up looking for some stream on the internet ! the only thing that you can have it's a special contract between slams and internet providers for exclusive broacast for their "abonnés"... that's the case with RG and orange, and i get something very similar as wimby live but on tv.

until the RG, Wimb, Oz and USO don't get it that it's pointless to sell tv rights for tape delay, nothing is going to change. imagine wimby saying no to nbc for tape delay ? in the end it's allways the money ruling the show, no matter what... if tomorrow the internet providers make a better offer, who knows ?
and casual fans are not going to make the efforts to watch live tennis at freak hours of the day, tape delay has still a target : keep the nbc viewer tunned in, if it's a tennis fan all the best for him, but i doubt it's mandatory.

I think NBC is secretly praying an earthquake will sink the entire West Coast timezone. The broadcast schedule for us fans on the West Coast is so tortured during the last few days of Slams, that I can think of no other explanation than NBC wants us all to disappear. And in a kill-2-birds-with-one-quake coup for NBC, the disaster would wipe out much of those infernal intertubes that insist on leaking all the tennis news everywhere.

As a native of Pittsburgh, what would happen if NBC showed a STEELER game taped???

An all out riot would incur, that's what would happen!!

Tennis is just as important to loyal fans!

I think Asad read my mind and that of all true tennis fans in the US. Thanks for sending our message to NBC. I'd like to see other tennis writers, players and celebrities get on the bandwagon as well.

swissmaster???

Moderator, isn't that a little too close to my monicker??? I've seen you asking others to change theirs when their monickers are too close to someone else's... We are 2 different people...

thanks.

I like TripleF-FedFanForever's version better. U have to go on the offensive here folks.

Mr Ebersol must think that there aree no tennis fans in the USA only soap opera fans. He might find that is so unless things drastically change. It is the worst tennis coverage in the world!

Asad, thanks for the effort. Your reasoning is clear, concise, and expressed quite well.

Sadly, my hopes are slim that NBC will take it to heart.

I heard the ratings for the men's final at Wimbledon set a record this year in the US. Why? Because an American, Roddick, was in the final. I'm as pro-American a fanboy as anyone who's not rabid, but that's not what drew me to the television Sunday morning. Regardless, it *is* what drives a preponderence of Amerian viewers to televsion broadcasts. In the world of sports, avid tennis fans don't nudge the Nielson numbers enough to get NBC's attention. When NBC can add in the casual tennis viewer (with convenient broadcast times), then their numbers begin to make financial sense.

This is not that different than ESPN's broadcasting one of the Williams sisters blowing out a journeywoman player instead of showing a more closely fought match between non-American players, even if they're players of note.

Look, I hope your message strikes a sympathetic chord in Ebersol. I suspect his interest will only be piqued, however, by your suggestion that NBC will eventually lose eyeballs if they continue to use tape delay.

Financial motivation is not, by definition, a bad thing. On the other hand, it's not what fuels viewers' passion for their sport.

An open question re Jim Courier's "afternoon ratings" rationale:

If ratings are better in the afternoon, why doesn't NBC tape-delay the Wimbledon and RG finals as well?

(Ulp. Hope I didn't give anyone any bright ideas.)

NBC--If you are going to televise a sporting event, i.e.,tennis, pleaase show it LIVE! We do not have to watch a tape-delayed football game, or a baseball game, or a basketball game,or a golf game,or any other sport on NBC-- (unless we are trying to watch the olympics and honestly, your Olympics coverage was the pits). Why then cannot you not show tennis live? If you think tennis is boring--it is not nearly so boring as the morning shows on NBC, including the Regis &Whoever show you had on so that we couldn't watch the tennis live.!!!!!

The US Open will be played in a few weeks. Are we tennis fans to be treated as bad during that tournament as we were during the French and Wimbledon tournaments?

Incidentally, you have a great commentator of tennis and other sports in Mary Carillo. Give her a chance to cover sports LIVE!!!

Good to see so many old-time and cursory TWibers (plus first-timers) show up to express themselves on this tape-delay issue.... and to EXHALE!

This clearly demonstrates how strongly people feel about this travesty called NBC sticking it to USA viewers and BLOCKING all others from doing anything about it - even on the Internet!

A complete and utter outrage, and I hope that the Dick(head) - recall "Liar, Liar" jajaja! - and his board-members would take these concerns to heart when next they gather 'round the conference table!

You never know, Jim Carrey might be brought in there - unable to tell a lie - letting his gut emotions spill-out and giving every one of the NBC nitwits at that table his UNVARNISHED (and TRUE - remember, he is "cursed" from being able to tell a lie for 24-hours!) IMPRESSIONS of every one of them.

I'd pay a million bucks to look in on that meeting!

Or @4:10 -- though I'm all for livestreams, remember that they're piggy-backing off live television feeds. Hence, if every televsion company/network in the world decided to offer coverage like NBC, there would be no livestreams.

Skip1515 -- i would be willing to bet that last year's final, and the fact that one of it contestants was still playing, helped as well. Or to put it another way, if we'd been treated to Fedal Wimby Part IV i'm guessing the ratings would have been equally high. Much as I admire Roddick and believe his nationality helped, he's also never entered the casual American sports fan's consciousness as, say, a McEnroe, Connors, Agassi, etc.

Thank you for this, glad to see I'm not the only one feeling this way.

Asad-- Great letter. Much more balanced than the email I sent them :).

All these points are important and it would be to NBC's great benefit (and tennis's) if they heed your advice.

It should be pointed out that with the advent of the internet, live scores and audio commentary can be obtained quite easily for the most important matches. I listened to both the French and Wimbledon quarters and semis on the internet, and then when NBC's coverage came on, I was less than interested and decided not to watch at all. However, when the coverage was live for the finals, I watched NBC and eschewed the internet commentary. Assuming I'm in a worthwhile demographic, I'm a dedicated tennis fan who didn't watch NBC because I found a more desireable alternative elsewhere, one that no doubt mystifies the NBC programming director who probably still thinks about winning the ratings war with ABC and CBS. It's a different world now.

Thank you very much for the sport. I just hope that NBC listens to this.

Thank you very much for the sport. I just hope that NBC listens to this.

I hope Pete has the guts to send these comments along to Dick E. ("Having left my scimitar at home for the week" is a bit-- WEAK). I think all of our beloved tennis journalists have been AMAZINGLY absent from this discussion.

Asad, I agree with everything you've said here, and like other people mentioned, you did it more politely than most of us would be capable of doing. Thanks :)

NBC is not the only station to show the tennis live. Where I live it was delayed. The pay tv network has not got the rights to provide any of the main courts after the quarterfinals. The free-to-air network does and it sucks.

Samantha E I am with you, if I are able to watch the match live I will log off immediately. I did this for both final matches.

Funny timing about this thread because yesterday I was reading an article about the same thing in my local newspaper. It was about siphoning live sporting events.

I feel sorry for you my American friends. Thank god we have a very reliable French sports channel in Canada that shows most of the Grand Slam tennis matches LIVE.

Merci RDS! LOL

The "tape" delay (an anachronism in itself that echoes the generational issues) is only a part of the problem. The announcing was horrific (during a key break point in the Del Potro-Fed match you site, McEnroe and Shiras were discussing whether McEnroe would get tickets to the Led Zepelin reunion event and missed the point entirely. Seriously.)

McEnroe shows no respect for any players outside the top 20. A humorous event when he was paired with a BBC announcer had McEnroe not even knowing the Chinese player's name (seriously): "is that his first or last name." The BBC announcer dryly: "His surname."

The producers also believe we viewers only care about watching The Williams Sisters, Andy Roddick and whoever is the top seed.

Many of the top players and the best matches were either never shown at all, or only as a few points after the fact.

The extra analysis we used to get (extra-slow motion, video modeling of shots) -- completely MIA.

Everything about the NBC coverage was terrible.

I'll throw my two cents in. My thoughts on showing delayed matches are this. Sometimes it's kind of nice to be honest. With matches on in the afternoon I can laze about in the morning and devote myself to tennis at a more convenient time of the day. But let me also say this; for two years running I've pulled all nighters just to watch the Aus-Open final live. As a hardcore fan I want to watch matches live, but as a casual observer I want matches to be on at my own convenience. But NBC broadcasts on the weekends which is already a pretty convenient time to watch matches in the first place so if I were a T.V. guy in charge of that sort of thing I'd get it out of my little executive head right now that casual fans will only watch tennis at high noon. When watching a tape-delayed match I have to shut myself off from the world for fear that I'll encounter someone who's more informed about the match than I am. That sucks, so when I'm in a bad mood I don't want to buy whatever NBC's sponsors are selling. Now if I'm not mistaken that's bad business. If I were one of NBC's sponsors right now I'd be a little upset after reading that no one wants to buy what I'm selling because the network I'm giving all this money to isn't giving me any return. Your welcome NBC sponsors, it was my pleasure to uncover this controversy.

This post did not go the way I planned.

But for real. There's also the dreaded, "Oh, we're running out of broadcast time here so we gotta cut out a couple games here, a set there." I don't remember a specific instance of NBC doing this, but I've seen it happen and it was horrible. You can't just cut out part of a live match though. It's the best part of live TV.

I emailed NBC during Wimbledon, too. It was one too many for me. I think tennis is too well entrenched to go the way of figure skating, which this year had nothing televised except nationals and worlds, and is now better accessed via the internet. But I don't know.

JimF at least the Aussie commentator are well versed on all players regardless of their ranking. I do prefer the paytv commentators a lot better.

Never posted before- but feel this article is "spot on"
Hope NBC is reading!

Mr. Stonada:

You have too much class for NBC; you let them off way too easily. They have no business treating tennis this way. This is a matter of respect for viewers and the product in which they have invested, and as other commenters have noted, they are only hurting themselves with this strategy. These days, people are as likely to check the Internet for live scores as wait for the tape.

Strangely, things have gotten worse over the last decade. I can remember watching the Seles-Pierce French Open quarterfinal live in 2000 and the Seles-Henin Wimbledon quarter in 2002 live on NBC. Now the Today Show eats up the entire morning with mindless small talk.

Where we should all be writing is to the Slams themselves, encouraging them to include in their TV contracts a requirement for the second week to be shown live and in its entirety. Let the networks take it or leave it. I believe I remember ESPN saying at Wimbledon a few years ago that they had to show some women's quarters or the semis in their entirety by contractual obligation. That's the way it should be.

And, kiwibee, yes, RDS is awesome! The commentators are so enthusiastic and fair. And they take live feeds as much as possible.

Great letter.

I have only one thing to add here: Perhaps the solution to the tape delay problem lies not with NBC, but with Wimbledon and the French Open themselves. After all they accept bids for the rights to cover their events. Why can't Wimbledon, and the French Open simply require that matches MUST be televised live in order to win the TV broadcast rights? This would then require NBC to begin showing the Roddick-Murray match in the second set - LIVE, They could always go back and show the first set and a half AFTER the match has completed LIVE.

NBC is not contractually obligated to show live tennis - as Jim Courier points out, it is about ratings and selling commercials. I think the only real means to make a signficant change is for the tournaments to put in writing in the TV contracts that matches MUST be shown live. Failure to do so would result in loss of broadcast rights for the remainder of the tournament and no renewal for the following year.

What do you think?

I am so thankfull who ever is writhing to who ever,. I called NBC when ROGER was playing with Del potro in Paris, I felt like a piese of nothing leaving in the most advanced country and not being enjoy the best tennis [player ever in USA> I mean who made that call. When I talked with that gentleman who answered the phone told me that that waas the board, so sad that we werenot being able to be part of history. If you can not do it get out of iti ler some one handle it pleease

Asad,

Why isn't anyone in the tennis media asking the new ATP chief about the state of TV coverage in the US? Does Adam Helfant think it's acceptable that coverage actually gets worse in the latter stages of a major when NBC takes over? Or that Roger Federer's French Open semi was not shown live on any channel in the US? Since his background at Nike included a focus on marketing, I would hope his answer is NO.

Asad ... could you persuade Tennis magazine to do an interview with Mr. Helfant and ask him these questions?

I'd like to know when the current contract with NBC expires. And when the Fox agreement for IW and Miami expires. Another travesty. What does he plan to do to improve the coverage of these tournaments?

If the ATP wants to grow the sport of tennis, requiring a tennis fan to be a detective to find a live match is not the way to go about it.

As for NBC, how many casual tennis fans tune in on a Thursday or Friday afternoon? Mr. Ebersol can tape delay all he wants as long as ESPN is allowed to show the matches live. That should be the stipulation in the next contract.

Craziest thing I saw during Wimby: I live in the Midwest, and when ESPN came back on the air at noon it picked up the Mauresmo/Safina match live. Meanwhile, NBC was showing the same match but an hour behind. Which station do you think I watched? Even sillier is when ESPN is not allowed to give the score of a match that will be shown later on NBC. Note to NBC: if we're interested enough to watch early morning tennis on ESPN, we're gonna check the internet for the score. It being 2009 and all.

Oh, and one other thing. Why isn't Mary Carillo in the booth for the Wimbledon men's final?

Great point, Eleventennis. I think that the Grand Slams should insist that any exclusive contract it grants for TV rights requires the network to show the matches live, perhaps with an exception clause for major breaking news or something.

Ray, this letter is a great effort, and thanks for writing it. But I do agree that you let them off too easily. NBC's programming choices are ruining the integrity of their coverage and are just a massive slap in the face to all tennis fans.

I cannot think of another sport with a decent following worldwide where matches/games of major importance are shown only on tape delay. It just does not work in this age.

Folks

It's already too late to complain to NBC. Especially Dick Ebersol. He sits in the Royal Box to watch Wimbledon! What would *he* know about tape delayed matches? Do you think he ever sits at home on semifinal day at Wimbledon waiting for the TAPE DELAYED semis to be shown?

I used to think complaining would be the way to effect change. It isn't As always, money is the only thing that talks. Period.

Money, money, money.

In TV world, ratings = money. Higher ratings = more $$$ for NBC.

But think, if nobody, and I mean NOBODY tuned into the No Body Cares about tennis network, then No Body Could collect any $$$ from sponsors. Then, perhaps, No Body Could finally face up to the fact that No Body Cares about the way they mistreat tennis fans across the US. No viewers. No ratings. No money. No mas NBC!!

Folks, it's THE ONLY WAY. Really, the ONLY WAY!

And please, don't listen to Jim Courier. He sits in the TV booth. He gets paid by the NBC'ers! He doesn't feel anyone's pain at all! (Do you think Jim Courier is tuning into NBC to watch the tape delayed semis at the French or Wimbledon? Do you? Do you??!!??)

No the only way is for everyone to completely boycott NBC. No more breakfast at Wimbledon. Thank you very much! Why do you want to be treated to yesterday's left over stale croissants and crumpets when you can have real, live, FRESH feasts of tennis matches just waiting to be devoured, on the Web!!! Yes, you have to hunt and peck at your keyboard to find them. But their is a LARGE GROWING market (no worries about NBC finding out about this year - they still think tennis fans will watch TAPE DELAYED matches .....pay no attention to our ads to go to our website for live streaming of Wimbledon.....we'll show it to you on tape delay! Just the way you like it, right?!?!?!)

So go out and surf the web. Find the sites that will show live Wimbledon and French Open matches. In their entirety. (Who cares if it's in Portugese, Spanish, Russian, or Mandarin!) Those sites are out there. And even if you have to pay, it's a better investment than tuning in to NBC. They *only* care about ratings. And the more viewers = better ratings = more tape delayed matches! The No Body Cares about tennis fans network doesn't care about tennis fans! Do you really think anyone at NBC is gonna give a rat's behind about more complaint letters. They'll be shredded and deleted faster than anyone can write 'em.

It's time to speak! With your pocketbooks, with your mouses, with your keyboards, with your iPhones. Anything but the boob tube!

Please, DON'T WATCH NBC tennis broadcasts anymore. I know, it's like going cold turkey. But even cold turkey tastes better than stale, leftover crumpets and morsels that NBC has been throwing at tennis fans year after year!!

Hope NBC gets to read this article.It was really disappointing not to see live matches.If they don't turn around for next year to show live matches we the tennis fans should boycott watching their delayed matches.

I am not an American either, but I find this entire saga extremely weird. The day of the Wimbledon final, I was on my annual vacation, in a Dead Sea hotel resort. A month before, when I booked the hotel, I made sure that my room will have cabel TV with the channel broadcasting Wimbledon. For the duration of the final my friend and roommate had to fend for herself while I was following the final, ignoring all the attractions and programs and almost missing dinner. What's more – once the final was over I wanted to get a feeling for the global reactions and read Fed's presser, so I went and paid for internet access, which the hotel doesn't give for free. And I would have done the same even if it wasn't a final – I would have done the same if it was the first round, for goodness' sake!

And, while I am a Fed fan, I am not exactly a tennis nut. I know many people whose level of devotion for the game much suppress mine. But even the average fans (or the mythical 'casual fans' I know) will not settle for not seeing great matches live. Not in this era. And I totally get the 'owning TV only for sports' thing. This is the only thing everybody wishes to watch live – and I say it as one who enjoys recorded matches more than live matches – but that doesn’t mean I want to miss out on the live tennis adrenaline!

A very reasonable letter by Asad, no doubt - but CAN those people see reason...?

May -

You got lucky because this was Wimby, and this is the only Slam channel 5 (Everyone - that's Israel sport channel, it's cabel - but you get it in every hotel, basically). If this was the French open (or the USO, or AO), you'd be hard pressed to find Eurosport in the hotel, never mind ESPN.

It happened to me a couple of months ago during one of the Masters which was on ESPN, and I was on vacation in Eylat. No Eurosport, no ESPN. How frustrating.

I ended up using a friend's laptop, my ATPTV account and had to buy internet access.

However, the Americans have it much worse - As an Israeli, I have access to ATP TV, Eurosport player, Wimby live, etc etc.

Those things are blocked for Americans - so even the computer is not an alternative.

I totally agree. Thankfully I was lucky enough to be in the UK at the time of the French final and all of Wimbledon, and got to see most of the big, historic matches live, but that certainly won't be the case most years and I hope NBC does a better job with the tape delays in the future.

Is it possible that they didn't show the tennis live because more people were interested in watching shows like "Ellen Degeneres" and "Rachael Ray" and "The Today Show"...

After all, there aren't really that many tennis fans out there. Plus a lot of tennis fans have to go to work during the day. So there are probably a lot of people ( the "stay at home and watch television during the day nation") who would have been angry if they turned on their t.v. set, expecting to see "their show", and found tennis on. They may have missed out on the latest developments in the life of Jon and Kate, or advice on how to lose weight, or whatever else those shows are about.

But if all those people want to watch those shows, and not tennis, would it really be wise of NBC to not give them what they want? That is their business after all.

OK, people. I understand your frustartion, because I’ve been there. Previous 10 years of my tennis viewing was in US – ESPN, NBC, FOX (god awful!), Versus.
Now I’ve returned back to Ukraine. French Open was bearable – a lot of coverage, but with asinine commentaries of Eurosport Russia (Boris Borovskij - imagine Dick Enberg, but more senile and less literate).
Then Wimbledon came – and it was no coverage at all. Fat zero. None of the 60-70 cable channels carried it. Yeah, you go ahead and not watch NBC. At least you can choose...

My own hope is that ESPN eventually assumes all control of the Slams here in the States. Yes, I have quibbles with their coverage -- as Skip1515 pointed out they showed a Williams doubles match over one of the more "obscure" men's 4th round matches and Suzy "Kiss Me" Kolber should be left on a football sideline. But beyond the minor stuff, they generally offered wall-to-wall coverage, and yes, live tennis. Think of how they handle the Australian Open. Can anyone in a million years imagine NBC showing second week matches live at three in the morning our time? Heck, was the OZ ever even televised here before ESPN started covering it? (Hint: the answer rhymes with Yo.)

Tennis Channel is, of course, another option, but for many of us it's a "premium" cable channel and will drive up our monthly bill an extra twenty or thirty bucks if we have more basic cable plans. Moreover, if anyone cares about growing the sport, Tennis Channel is probably not going to do it.

Either way, NBC must go. The letter is tactfully written, it's intent admirable, but ultimately the peacock will never offer much more than a big, steaming pile of doo.

I hosnestly would prefer to watch the matches on tv. But the fact that they're not live drives me completely away, I seriously dont give it a second. With all the free live streaming out there that is watched by hundreds of thousands, I dont see why NBC doesnt show the matches live. Im sure 99% of those people watching online would rather see it on a big screen tv then a 20 inch monitor. Thats such a large and important audience you're missing out on because of your tape delay.

Or – I know, I am an Israeli myself. Still find it hard to believe that the tennis coverage available in Israel will be better than what is offered in the USA…

Thank you Asad Raza
I wrote an e-mail to NBC spotrs right after french and another after Wimbledon voicing my total displaesure in NBC's tennis matches broadcasting. I have seen in the past so many times NBC doing this. I asked them to answer my e-mail but till today haven't got any response.
Not only they use tape delay but they never coordinate with ESPN to continue showing it live the most exciting matched in progress.
Jim Coirier's response is just a business like not a true tennis fan.
Generally the live showing on Grand Slam matches is worst in USA than rest of the world. Does USTA pay any attention to such problems? On one hand they complain about tennis popularity getting less in USA and other hand we have business people like NBC. Just disgrace.

I am not a big online commenter but I had to make an exception for this. I was extremely frustrated with the delayed coverage as well. I frequently lamented that I wished there was a petition of some kind to force NBC to confront this issue. Clearly (Dick Ebersol) is not in touch with tennis fans. I totally understand business decisions but ultimately if you lose viewership (out of frustration or because we have already followed it via internet) what is the point?

Pierre -- I don't disagree that it's probably a sound biz decision for NBC, but that's why I hope an all-sports network like ESPN is awarded the next contract. NBC can't even bring itself to offer live Olympic coverage in "off-hours". I doubt they give a hoot about a men's QF match at Wimbledon.

Btw, I think Tangi Popsicle's post and questions/suggestions might be a much more effective way for fans to try to affect this issue than writing letters to the likes of Ebersol.

Asad/Pete B -- If either of you are reading this, I hope you take Tangi Popsicle's 12:43 request to heart. To me it makes much more sense to try to work this issue through Helfant than Ebersol who, end of the day, probably doesn't care about the sport of tennis, just his "Breakfast at Wimbledon" nonsense. Or even try the head of the USTA too.

Moghabhai Desai -- agreed and commend your passion and efforts.

Asad,

You did a good job in outlining the problems of tape delay to tennis fans. Other posters also feel strongly about NBC's coverage and I feel sorry for viewers who are denied those memorable moments. I really hope tv executives listen to viewers. It is ironic that people have 50+ tv channels of choice and still can't watch what they want.

"Asad/Pete B -- If either of you are reading this, I hope you take Tangi Popsicle's 12:43 request to heart. To me it makes much more sense to try to work this issue through Helfant than Ebersol who, end of the day, probably doesn't care about the sport of tennis, just his "Breakfast at Wimbledon" nonsense. Or even try the head of the USTA too."

Mcakron,
Could we add Allaster for the WTA side of the model as Tangi wrote a very good post looking at it from another angle instead of direct with NBC.

I think live tennis is a bad fit for NBC. The Today show is a huge revenue earner for NBC, and hence it's schedule is sacrosanct. NBC will never, ever, ever, pre-empt the Today show for live tennis. I guess the thinking is the morning shows are among the last venues for the American mass audience. Perhaps NBC should relinquish its week-day coverage to ESPN and the Tennis Channel, and stick to the weekends.