The US Open to…. VERSUS????

Here are a couple of more links. I was going to incorporate them into the Tuesday Late Update, but I decided to put them here.

First from the Sports Business Journal’s Daniel Kaplan and John Ourand comes a story that the US Tennis Association is seriously negotiating with Versus (?) to put the US Open on that channel. The US Open has been on USA Network since the 1980’s. Versus and the Tennis Channel are said to be the most serious bidders. The USTA is negotiating with USA and ESPN as well, but both are said to be not so serious at this time.

ESPN/Tennis Channel have the rights to the first three tournaments of tennis’ Grand Slam, the Australian Open, the French Open and Wimbledon. It would behoove ESPN to make an agreement with the USTA so the year’s final Grand Slam could be seen by a wide audience.

USA Network is rumored to be dropping the US Open after its contract with the USTA expires next year and parent NBC Universal is focusing more on original dramas for the network.

It would be a bad move to put the USTA’s signature event on Versus, but money talks here. I hope this does not happen.

Thanks to Sports Media Watch which had the link to the Sports Business Journal story.

Also from the Sports Media Watch, Paulsen looks at the weekend ratings.

That’s it for now.