"Someone shoot me": Massive price hike and no commitment to showing every match irks fans in Sky Sports ATP/WTA move

Sky Sports sealing the rights for WTA and ATP tennis has continued to court controversy with the pricing of the broadcaster the latest aspect to be put into focus.

When the news was confirmed, a lot of fans were left puzzled by the broadcaster being biased in branding towards certain players namely Coco Gauff and Carlos Alcaraz as well as British stars over Iga Swiatek and Novak Djokovic (the current World No.1's) as well as seemingly trying to brush over Aryna Sabalenka, Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev among others due to being Russian and Belarusian.

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A five year deal was signed and heralded, but fans were left short changed by the news. Amazon Prime previously was a service which gave fans the chance to watch it on their £9.99 a month subscription, while the price of Sky Sports on NOW TV alone so not on their TV packages is cheapest £34.99 a month.

Fans also took notice of the fact that Sky Sports had said about having highlights instead of full matches on tour and wouldn't commit to a full channel seemingly until Indian Wells. Fans on the previous service could watch every game on a streaming platform. This led to some also believing they would only show Andy Murray and Emma Raducanu and British stars over the big names.

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As well as all Grand Slams barring US Open being on Eurosport and other channels so a pay wall is needed to access Grand Slam tennis also.

"From 8.99 a month with [Amazon] Prime to £34.99 with Sky. Someone shoot me," one fan wrote.

"I’m gonna to the headquarters of Sky and off myself cause wdym 34.99 a month????"

"Sad to see frankly. I can’t see how the sport grows at all with it on Sky. It’s far too expensive for many actual tennis fans to afford so I don’t know how you expect to convince anyone not already deeply invested in the sport to fork out ungodly money for it. Stagnation ahead :/."

Another wrote: "The news tennis fans have been dreading... From £99 a year for quality all-match coverage on Prime, to the cheapest sky sports option of £420 via NOW without all-match coverage on most devices. As before that won't cover Aus Open, French Open, or Wimbledon."

DR. LUMAR

@LucyyKT

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From 8.99 a month with Prime to £34.99 with Sky. Someone shoot me.

Sky Sports

@SkySports

BREAKING 🚨: Sky secures new partnerships for the ATP and WTA Tours, which will see year-round tennis for fans on Sky Sports. 🤩

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Shank

@Shankballs

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I’m gonna to the head quarters of sky and off myself cause wdym 34.99 a month????

Sky Sports

@SkySports

BREAKING 🚨: Sky secures new partnerships for the ATP and WTA Tours, which will see year-round tennis for fans on Sky Sports. 🤩

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Stephen Molloy

@Stephen_Molloy

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Replying to @SkySports

The coverage of the US Open on the Now TV app was pretty awful, especially when it came to accessing the multi court options, so I would hope Sky will get their act together in this regard, especially considering Prime coverage was better, ad-free, and cheaper.

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Keith

@Keith_678

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Costs more, shows less matches, less accesible. Not great for tennis

Sky Sports

@SkySports

BREAKING 🚨: Sky secures new partnerships for the ATP and WTA Tours, which will see year-round tennis for fans on Sky Sports. 🤩

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