This is an interesting question.

A little research produced some interesting results. Until two years ago, ESPN broadcast the Indian Wells Tennis Tournament, also known as the PNB Paribas Open, a Masters 1000 level pro tennis ATP and WTP event. This event, located in Indian Wells, California, is perhaps the united state’s most prestigious tennis tournament, aside from the US Open, located in Flushing Meadows. This year’s March, 2009 event has produced some great match-ups and matches. We’ve seen Rafael Nadal finally solve David Nalbandian, Andy Murray get pushed by Ivan Lujbicic, Andy Roddick defeat Novak Djokovic (again), Roger Federer take out Gonzalez and Verdasco, with more exciting matches to come in the men’s semifinals and finals play on Saturday and Sunday.

The semifinals are Roddick/Nadal and Murray/Federer. Can you think of a two more interesting matches? Roddick against Nadal on a fast hard-court? A re-mtach of the US Open (which has not gone Federer’s way since)? This sounds like great tv, at least for tennis fans.

The recent TV broadcast history of this event has ESPN carrying it until last year it was picked up by FSN, otherwise known as Fox Sports Net (USA). And here the problem begins. Although You can access a schedule off of the website for the tournament, this schedule is highly misleading. According to this schedule, if you get FSN you get to see everything live from Round 3 forward. However, note the asterisk that states: Check your local listings. These are subject to change.

So here is the truth: you will NOT see the men’s singles semifinals or finals or (both) live on FSN or any other television station for that matter if you live in the following cities or (in some cases) states: Minnesota (statewide), Wisconsin(statewide), New York (statewide), Denver, Boston, Florida, Atlanta, Houston, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Washington, Baltimore, Atlanta, Miami, and Dallas.

And, since FSN networks choose locally, whether to broadcast these events, sometimes even the scheduled broadcasts are not taking place. Saying there is tennis on FSN is a little like predicting the weather, apparently. Except don’t expect any sunny days in Indian Wells for this weekend if you live anywhere that cares more about, oh, basketball and hockey? And don’t worry, FSN investors, your money wasn’t wasted. They’re watching live tennis wherever the local viewers want to see it, and there is no real FSN to be angry at anyway, just a collection of little local television stations. If I told you that this was owned by microsoft would it surprise you?

Then I download yet another PDF to see the actual broadcast times in my region. To my dismay, most of the broadcasts in my region (FSN North) are delayed. For instance, the Sunday final is supposed to be shown Monday -- in the middle of the night-- from 2:00 am to 6:00 am. And as for the warning that the local listings are subject to change -- that I have already noticed. According to comcast, the channel is simply opting not to show some of the tennis programming it has submitted for the cable station to list, or the tennis programming comes in late, or leaves early. From what I can determine, FSN is actually a group of essentially separate television stations with very little overlapping programming. Imagine a coalition of local porgramming stations (and hence a “network” in its most divergent sense. This “network” has bought the rights to the Paribas Open, but it is up to each independent station what part (if any) and when (live or delayed) to show it.


The truth: Here is Fox Sport Network’s actual broadcast schedule for the PNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells Tennis Tournament:

foxsports09 tennis schedule