ITV Secure French Open Broadcast Rights in UK

English TV network, ITV have won the rights to broadcast the French Open in the UK taking away the rights from rival network BBC.

ITV’s first ever live coverage of one of the big four grand slam tennis tournaments will be broadcast from 2012, as part of a three-year deal.

ITV1 will show the men’s and women’s finals from the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, along with live coverage of two other matches during the two-week tournament.

Digital channel ITV4 and ITV.com will broadcast about six hours’ coverage of each day’s play along with highlights.

ITV has secured the UK free-to-air rights to the tournament. Eurosport previously held UK pay-TV rights, with a new deal pending.

The ITV controller of sport, Niall Sloane, said: “It’s the first time that a grand slam has been shown live on ITV and with around six hours of coverage over each day of the tournament we’ll be offering viewers more free-to-air coverage of the tournament than ever before.”

The BBC may not be too aggrieved with the loss of the French Open having renewed a deal for the broadcast rights to Wimbledon yesterday.

The BBC have had to cut back after their budget was reduced. This has led to the BBC only showing half the F1 races live, with Sky broadcasting every grand prix plus qualifying sessions.

The BBC has also lost live TV rights to the Paralympics and IAAF World Athletics Championships (both to Channel 4) and the US Masters golf tournament (to Sky).