Australian Open Starts Sunday on ESPN2

100+ Hours on ESPN2 HD, 600 on ESPN3; Finals Live January 26, 27

The 2013 tennis season begins with the Australian Open presented by Franklin Templeton Investments with more than 100 live hours on ESPN2 HD and 600+ on ESPN3.  Each year, the marathon live action seen overnight in the U.S. from Melbourne has led to some of the most dramatic action in the sport in recent years.  The action gets underway Sunday, Jan. 13, at 6:30 p.m. ET with a 12.5-hour telecast.

ESPN’s 29th consecutive Australian Open represents the company’s longest uninterrupted professional sports programming relationship.  Daily action continues each night with afternoon reairs totaling more than 50 additional hours through the women’s championship Saturday, Jan 26, and the men’s championship Sunday, Jan. 27, both at 3 a.m. with reairs later each day at 9 a.m. and in prime time.  The telecasts are also available through WatchESPN online at WatchESPN.com and on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app.

Expanded digital coverage includes 600 hours on ESPN3, all live, with users choosing between ESPN2 or action on up to other seven courts with all matches available on-demand after completion.  ESPN3’s coverage starts at 7 p.m. over the first 11 days of the tournament with the first ball each day of all TV court matches.  Additionally, ESPN3 will offer live matches not airing on ESPN2, including the men’s, women’s and mixed doubles championships and the finals of the boys and girls divisions.

The tournament is part of ESPN’s ongoing Grand Slam alliance with Tennis Channel, which offers audiences a near round-the-clock tournament experience at tennis’ major events.  ESPN is producing all Australian Open coverage for both networks, which will cross-promote each other with each channel utilizing its own commentators.

TV:  IN THE U.S. AND AROUND THE WORLD

The best tennis team in television returns for 2013, led by Cliff Drysdale – who has been with ESPN since its first tennis telecast in 1979.  Darren Cahill, Chris Evert, Mary Joe Fernandez, Brad Gilbert, Patrick McEnroe and Pam Shriver return with hosts Chris Fowler, who also calls matches including the finals, and Chris McKendry.  Tom Rinaldi will contribute features, news and interviews during event coverage and on SportsCenter.

ESPN Interactive TV, seen on DIRECTV and ESPN3, will again present the Australian Open in a six-screen “mix channel” format.  For eight hours each evening during the first eight days of the tournament, viewers will be able to watch the ESPN2 feed or select from five other courts, all with commentary and customized graphics.   Interactive data features include the tournament draw, up-to-date scores, daily order of play, and social media interaction.  SportsCenter’s Steve Weissman will anchor the coverage, providing studio updates and news from around the tournament. Joining the announce team are former players Chanda Rubin, Jeff Tarango, Leif Shiras, Elise Burgin, Doug Adler, Nick Lester, and Christen Bartelt, along with play by play announcers Mark Donaldson and Brian Webber.

ESPN International will deliver to the pan-regional ESPN networks in Latin America (including the HD networks) over 100 hours of coverage, showcasing the biggest names in tennis and players of local relevance. ESPN+ will air over 30 hours of live complementary coverage in primetime throughout the early rounds.

ESPN Classic is airing more than 100 hours of memorable Australian Open matches from the past as well as plus tennis-themed editions of the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning SportsCentury series and other interview shows during January.  Beginning Tuesday, Jan. 8, at 12 a.m. (Jan. 7 at 9 p.m. PT), ESPN Classic will air Australian Open programming virtually around the clock until Friday, Jan. 11 at 8 p.m.  Later in the month, ESPN Classic will air a number of Australian Open matches upon a significant anniversary (5^th, 10^th, etc.), including Andy Roddick’s epic 21-19 fifth set vs. Younes El Aynaoui in the 2003 Australian Openquarterfinals (January 22, 9 a.m.), the Williams Sisters squaring off in the 2003 Women’s Final (January 24, 5 p.m.) and the 1993 Women’s Final between Monica Seles and Steffi Graf (January 29, 5 p.m.).  For the full schedule.

DIGITAL MEDIA, AT HOME AND ABROAD

WatchESPN will deliver ESPN2’s live coverage of the Australian Open online at WatchESPN.com, on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app and through ESPN on Xbox LIVE to Gold members.  Additionally, ESPN3 will once again provide coverage of no fewer than eight live feeds from various courts – including the women’s and men’s semifinals and finals – nearly 600 hours.  For the first 11 days (Sun., Jan. 13 – Wed., Jan. 23), coverage will commence at 7 p.m. (11 a.m. in Melbourne, when play begins) and continue for at least seven hours.  The courts to be included are the “TV courts,” the ones most likely to have top matches:  Rod Laver Arena, Hisense Arena, Margaret Court Arena, plus Courts 2, 3, 6 and 8.  For the remainder of the tournament, ESPN3 will continue with select live coverage from ESPN2, including the women’s (Jan. 26) and men’s (Jan. 27) finals, plus exclusive coverage of select men’s, women’s and mixed doubles play and the boys’ and girls’ finals.  Fans can also access ESPN3 feeds from AustralianOpen.com.  Each window will be available for on-demand replay following completion.  With ESPN3’s dynamic interface, fans will be able to fast-forward, rewind and pause action – during on-demand replay and live action.

ESPN Mobile TV, a 24/7 channel for wireless, will provide 113 hours of live and simulcast coverage with ESPN2’s programming schedule.

ESPN On Demand (TV & Mobile) Will offer highlights from past years tournaments as well as a highlight from this year’s men’s and women’s matches.

ESPN.com will once again feature Courtcast, a cutting-edge application presented by IBM, featuring official IBM tournament and real-time statistics, Hawk-Eye technology, a rolling Twitter feed, Cover It Live analysis and interactive poll questions. Slam Central, an aggregation of all the day’s top news, analysis, blogs and video, as well as a daily Digital Serve and At This Minute video segments with commentators in Melbourne discussing the results, will be a daily staple.  News and analysis from contributors Bonnie D. Ford and Tennis.com writers will add to the depth of coverage.  During the second week of play, the staff will interact with fans via live blogging.

espnW.com will begin coverage Tuesday, Jan. 8, with several previews, player profiles and features planned, along with on-going analysis of the tournament.  Highlights:

·         Bonnie Ford will be in Melbourne providing commentary, features and more, including a major feature on Serena Williams, looking back at her tremendous summer of 2012 and wondering what’s to come this year.

·         A feature on Victoria Azarenka who played brilliantly in the first quarter of 2012 and ultimately ended the year No. 1.  Is she a legitimate No. 1 or just the latest who briefly holds that ranking?

·         A look at how tennis hasn’t been immune to positive drug tests, but it seems to lack the sense of pervasive suspicion that exists within other sports.

·         What’s new since the off season?  The Australian Open is often compared to the start of the school year – who is looking different, who is ready to make a move, what are the new coaching pairings, etc.

·         A complete analysis of the women’s draw will be posted January 10.

·         Rising American star Sloane Stephens will blog several times during the tournament.

In addition, Kate Fagan will have a feature story about a how in the last 20 years, a single indoor court in Moscow, the Spartak tennis facility, has produced more female tennis talent than the entirety of the United States.  That court is run by coaches who teach a distinct brand of tennis, focusing on fundamentals.  In fact, most young players aren’t allowed to compete against an opponent until they’ve spent a minimum of three years practicing.  This story will explain how, and why, Spartak has managed to produce such an inordinate amount of tennis talent, while also examining the role of Russian culture in the equation.  Just as basketball provides an escape route for young men growing up in the inner city, so too does tennis offer opportunity for the young women of Moscow.

ESPNtenis.com will have the following content:  A daily webisode called “ESPiaNdo el Australian Open”; an “applet” featuring real-time, point-by-point scoring of all matches; live scores, results and brackets; columns, chats and blogs by TV commentators and other writers; polls; the “Ask ESPN” feature, prompting users to send their comments/questions via the website; video clips with highlights of daily action and analysis; TV scheduling information, and photo galleries.

ESPN International’s ESPN Play (Watch ESPN  in Brazil) broadband service in Latin America will provide wall-to-wall coverage of the year’s first Grand Slam, airing over 500 hours of live tennis from every available televised court, including the men’s & women’s quarterfinals, semifinals and finals, all live. This streaming action will be available in over two million homes in 15 countries throughout Latin America/Caribbean (Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Mexico, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Colombia and Panama, Aruba, Barbados, Curacao, Trinidad/Tobago).

AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2013 on ESPN2 HD

(For these charts, all times are Eastern, and each day “begins” at 6 a.m. ET.

Therefore, the listing Sun., Jan. 19 at 3:30 a.m. ET is actually very late on Sunday night.)

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