Eurosport, the channel that has traditionally broadcast the Melbourne tournament, is no longer on Sky
Where can you watch the Australian Open? Still on Eurosport, which has been broadcasting the first Grand Slam tennis tournament since 1995 and holds the exclusive rights through 2031. Starting this year, however, things are changing. The Melbourne tournament is, in fact, the first major Warner Bros. Discovery sporting event not available to Sky subscribers. This is because the lease agreement for Eurosport 1 and 2 expired last summer. This is no minor change, given that over 70% of the two channels’ total viewership came through Sky’s platform.
How has Warner Bros. Discovery addressed this? Essentially in two ways. It has strengthened its distribution partnership with DAZN, which secured a sort of anti-Sky exclusivity in exchange for an increase in the rental fee. For the Australian Open, DAZN will offer its subscribers, at no additional cost, access to four additional channels in addition to Eurosport 1 and 2, for a total of six simultaneous live feeds. The same applies to Timvision users. Given that Eurosport is also available on Discovery+, the holders of the Melbourne TV rights are betting heavily on HBO Max, which has just launched in Italy. The streaming platform offers films and TV series from the American group’s extensive library (Marco Bellocchio’s drama “Portobello,” dedicated to the Tortora case, will also arrive shortly), along with top-tier tennis, the Olympics, and cycling. An HBO Max subscription can also be activated via Amazon Prime Video and Timvision, which in this case act as aggregators. While we wait to see what happens with the finalization of Netflix’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (excluding linear channels like Eurosport), one thing is certain: this year, to follow all the Grand Slam events, you’ll need two subscriptions. The rights landscape is as follows: the Australian Open and Roland Garros exclusively on Eurosport; Wimbledon exclusively on Sky (which also offers all ATP and WTA tournaments, including the Finals); the US Open on Sky, simulcast with SuperTennis.
