By Erik Gudris | @ATNTennis | Wednesday, September 6, 2023
Former 2021 US Open champion and present No. 3 seed Daniil Medvedev is having a tough time having the ability to watch this yr’s US Open on TV.
And he’s not alone.
Many tennis followers, 15 million to be actual, within the United States are at present unable to observe the final main occasion of the yr on tv attributable to an ongoing dispute being cable tv big Charter Communications (also referred to as Spectrum) and leisure conglomerate Disney, which owns numerous channels together with ESPN and ESPN2.
Medvedev, after his fourth spherical win over Alex de Minaur, revealed that he’s resorted to observe tennis on unlawful or “pirate” websites since his lodge in New York is a type of impacted by the dispute.
“I was waiting for this question because I guess in a lot of hotels they have Spectrum. I cannot watch it on TV anymore,” Medvedev advised the press. “I don’t know if it’s legal or illegal, but I have to find a way because I cannot watch it on TV. I got internet, probably this, how you call it, pirate websites, I watch tennis there. I have no other choice.”
Daniil Medvedev surges into the quarterfinals! pic.twitter.com/0NqT1XowO3
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 5, 2023
Over Labor Day weekend, Charter subscribers watching the US Open all of the sudden discovered their screens going clean after which adopted up by a message from the cable firm explaining the scenario.
Essentially Charter and Disney are negotiating over the charges that Disney costs cable firms to indicate marquee channels like ESPN.
Charter stated in a press release, “We offered Disney a fair deal, and yet they continue to demand an excessive increase. This impact to customers is consistent with past practices from Disney, no matter who you get your service from.”
ESPN, in its personal assertion, stated “Although Charter claims that they value their customers, they declined Disney’s offer to extend negotiations which would have kept Disney-owned networks up for consumers in the middle of perennial programming events like the US Open and college football.” Neither facet has reached an settlement and it’s probably the dispute will proceed all through the remainder of the US Open.
The Financial Times reported that Disney has quietly given entry to entry to gamers, together with Medvedev who request it, to The Walt Disney Company app permitting them to observe ESPN in the course of the dispute.
Statement on Spectrum, Charter Dispute with Disney pic.twitter.com/OrkAubCL5d
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 1, 2023
Medvedev will subsequent face Andrey Rublev within the quarterfinals.
Photo credit score: Getty
Source: www.tennisnow.com