After nearly a decade on cable, the men’s final of the US Open is returning to broadcast television. Plus, more scheduling nuggets from the network upfronts: college football and NASCAR.
US Open men’s tennis final returning to broadcast television
ESPN announced Wednesday that the men’s final of the US Open tennis tournament will air on ABC September 8, marking the first time since 2014 on CBS that the event has aired on broadcast television. With the move to ABC, the match will move up two hours from 4 PM ET to 2 PM, in keeping with the network’s aversion to sports running into its primetime programming.
(The scheduling change was first noticed last month by a number of eagle-eyed observers, including the sports media writer Morgan Wick and Ben Koo of Awful Announcing.)
Though it was not explicitly stated in Wednesday’s announcement, the women’s final will remain on ESPN, as ABC has a South Carolina-Kentucky college football game in the competing window.
ABC has steadily increased its tennis inventory in recent years, adding a pair of live Wimbledon middle weekend windows and a carrying a US Open telecast on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend.
ABC, CBS, “Pac-2,” among college football scheduling announcements
Speaking of college football, ABC will debut its new SEC package with a tripleheader of Clemson-Georgia, Miami-Florida and Notre Dame-Texas A&M on August 31, the opening Saturday of the season, it was announced Tuesday. The aforementioned…
