"Serious complacency on quality": Tennis journalist slams Madrid Open reporting in US weeks after Naomi Osaka match coverage "disaster"
Prominent journalist Ben Rothenberg has criticized the Tennis Channel for its delayed coverage of the second-round match between Tommy Paul and Francisco Cerundolo at the 2024 Madrid Open.
Rothenberg's latest criticism comes just over a month after he slammed the network for a similar issue during Naomi Osaka's second-round clash against Elina Svitolina at the Miami Open on March 24.
The journalist took notice of a social media repost by an X (formerly Twitter) user who tuned into the network to watch Paul play Cerundolo. Appalled by the delay, the user apparently canceled an upcoming subscription renewal for the network and shared the experience on X (formerly Twitter) via a repost, writing:
"Currently 5 games behind... Paul vs. Cerundolo is at 3-2 and it's still 0-0 on the stream. I just canceled my upcoming renewal @TennisChannel"
Apart from the user's own recent bad experience, the repost featured Rothenberg's post from March. In the post, the latter slammed the Tennis Channel for its coverage of Osaka's Miami Open encounter against Svitolina.
"Tennis Channel streaming is a disaster. The Osaka-Svitolina stream is a full changeover + game behind. How does this happen? Never encountered another streaming service that offers lag quite so glacial," Rothenberg had written.
Rothenberg commented on the user's situation via another repost, which featured his latest criticism.
"Tennis Channel monopolizing the tour has lead to serious complacency on quality by them, frustratingly," Rothenberg wrote.
Ben Rothenberg was annoyed with the network well before this year's Madrid Open and Miami Open
Prior to these more recent incidents, Rothenberg pointed out a three-minute-plus delay in the Tennis Channel's 2023 French Open coverage on June 8, 2023. The day featured the men's singles quarterfinal between Casper Ruud and Holger Rune and the women's singles semifinals between Iga Swiatek and Beatriz Haddad Maia, and Karolina Muchova and Aryna Sabalenka.
"Tennis Channel Plus feed currently more than three minutes behind live score," Rothenberg had written.
The delay was particularly concerning for American tennis fans. They were previously informed that the network had exclusive rights to broadcast the men's singles semifinal between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic in the USA on June 9.
Until then, American fans could also tune into Peacock or NBC for following the 2023 French Open. However, the development deep into the Major suddenly required them to purchase an additional Tennis Channel subscription. Unsurprisingly, several fans vented their frustrations at the network on social media.