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UNITED STATES TENNIS ASSOCIATION MEDIA CONFERENCEMay 16, 2013Dave HaggertyJohn SkipperGordon SmithCHRIS WIDMAIER: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you very much for joining us today for this very special announcement. This is Chris Widmaier, managing director of communications for the USTA. On our call today from the USTA we have the USTA chairman of the board and president, Dave Haggerty, the USTA executive director and chief operating officer, Gordon Smith, and we also have ESPN president John Skipper. For many of you who know him, Jason Bernstein from ESPN is with John as well. There are other USTA executives who we're not announcing, but in case there are questions, you may hear other voices. The four main speakers will be John Skipper and Jason Bernstein from ESPN, Dave Haggerty and Gordon Smith from the USTA. At this point before we go to media questions, I'm going to ask John Skipper to say a few words. JOHN SKIPPER: Thank you, Chris. I would also like to thank Dave Haggerty, Gordon Smith and Harlan Stone at the USTA for the great privilege of presenting their entire tournament, the US Open, beginning in 2015. We at ESPN are thrilled to be the USTA's partner. We believe in the continued importance of live events, and there's nothing more important among live events than world‑class events like the US Open. We are pleased and proud to have this privilege and want to thank our friends and partners at the USTA. DAVE HAGGERTY: John, thanks very much for those comments. The USTA is delighted, as well, to be entering this partnership with ESPN. What a great partner. We believe that what we're talking about here is great for the US Open. More importantly it's great for tennis. CHRIS WIDMAIER: At this point in time we'll open it up to questions for the media. Q. Dave, what sort of concerns, if any, did you have about the idea of shifting from a broadcast network, one that had aired your tournament for many, many years, to having the tournament entirely on cable with a smaller TV reach? DAVE HAGGERTY: We gave it a lot of thought. I mean, it's a 46‑year relationship and partnership we've had with CBS and broadcast. We certainly went through a lot of internal discussions. We had very good conversations with CBS. As we went down that path, we realized that we really weren't able to come to a mutually agreeable solution. We then began to explore some opportunities externally. ESPN and the USTA had some very good dialogue about some possibilities of what we could do that would really give us the opportunity to go beyond where we are today, to be able to televise every match on every court on different platforms. We're excited with the solution. GORDON SMITH: We had a 60‑day period where we worked with CBS and tried to come to an agreement. Didn't work out during that exclusive period. When it opened up and we thought about it, look, ESPN is the strongest brand in sports. It puts the US Open at the center of American sports culture like never before. It really gives us access to the multiple platforms that ESPN has. It's the way our fans are going to demand to see the Open in the future. We think it opens up all kinds of great possibilities. JOHN SKIPPER: I appreciate that confidence, Gordon, and your kind words.  We have all the respect for CBS and what they've done with this event. I would submit to you fairly categorically that we expect the audience for the US Open to increase, not to decrease. With all the platforms that we have digitally, we have made a commitment that we will put every match during the course of this agreement, will be made available either on ESPN, ESPN‑2 or ESPN‑3. We presented last year a coherent start‑to‑finish presentation of Wimbledon and the audience went up, it did not go down. So this sort of old canard that there's something to be lost by going from broadcast to cable I would submit has it wrong. It is just the opposite. Moving to ESPN allows an opportunity to reach more people across more platforms and that's what we believe will happen. Q. Did you have a comfort level in making this move by looking at ESPN's experience with Wimbledon, that it was a very similar thing, NBC having it for 43 years, did that give you wind in your sails on assessing ESPN's bid? GORDON SMITH: I don't think it was really about NBC and Wimbledon or CBS. CBS, as has been said, has been a fabulous partner. We have nothing but praise for them. This is simply about looking forward, looking at this partnership, the platforms that ESPN has, and what the future of how people want to view sporting events will be. That was certainly something that was out there. But it really was about the new partnership and not about CBS or the NBC deal with Wimbledon. It's really about what it does for American tennis. Q. John, five years in a row the men's championship was delayed until Monday. You, of course, have Monday Night Football. What is going to happen in those cases? Part two to that. Saturdays, especially in September, are dominated by college football. Where are you going to find the space to put these matches? JOHN SKIPPER: We have presented a complete and comprehensive plan to the USTA which satisfied them that we had the windows and the availability across all of our networks to present all of their matches. I can state categorically whatever happens with rain, 15‑hour matches, delays or whatever, that we will on our significant platforms have all the matches. It's the flexibility, of course, having multiple networks, having different places you can put events, plan for contingencies. We will not have any issue. We are thrilled. It's been our intention to continue to increase the strength of our schedule and to continue to present across all of our networks great product, and that allows us to do this. We don't have any concerns about rain delays or contingencies. We and the USTA have a plan. Q. The championship game going to Monday, does that mean perhaps that would be on ESPN‑2? JOHN SKIPPER: We will have one of the major ESPN networks. We have a couple years to plan for all potentialities. We will be fine if it goes to Monday night. Q. ESPN is going to go up to about 130 hours of coverage of the event on television. I guess the Tennis Channel has had 70 hours under the current agreement. Will they be part of the mix going forward in 2015? JOHN SKIPPER: I have not had a chance to talk to Ken Solomon at the Tennis Channel yet. We have a many‑year relationship and a history of looking at whether there's mutual benefit us to sublicense back and forth. We expect to have a conversation. I can't really comment what we might do because we haven't had that conversation yet. Q. I consumed a large part of Wimbledon last year, was able to do it on a tablet and the phone. I assume this is really not about what happens in 2015, it's what happens as we consume beyond. How much did ESPN's ability to have multi‑platforms read into you going with them? DAVE HAGGERTY: It had a significant impact on our decision. It really gives us the ability to deliver media, to deliver the event to consumers the way that they want it, the way they demand it today. JOHN SKIPPER: On the first day of our discussions, the USTA asked us about the possibility of providing coverage of all 17 courts. There right now is what I hope will soon become an anachronistic phrase, they have six television courts. We were happy to give our answer pretty quickly that our intention during the course of this tournament is to make every one of those matches available, and we're excited by that. GORDON SMITH: Every ball of every match of the US Open will be able to be seen. Q. John, with your Wimbledon coverage, you had pretty much that same situation, correct? JOHN SKIPPER: We did not have complete and utter comprehensive coverage. World‑class events, that's our intention going forward. Q. Dave, John Skipper answered diplomatically the question about what network would air a potential Monday championship if rain was involved. Does the USTA have any kind of preference or does the USTA see any kind of difference in a men's final on ESPN versus a men's final on ESPN‑2? DAVE HAGGERTY: Certainly we think the final on ESPN would be fantastic. We also know that ESPN‑2 has great coverage, as well. Given the choice, ESPN would be where we would want to be. They have many platforms, but again, that would be our hope. JOHN SKIPPER: You elicited a good, diplomatic answer from both sides (laughter). Q. Does this mean that matches will no longer be streamed on US Open.org and the USTA apps? JOHN SKIPPER: I happen to know that answer. Jason is here in case I don't. We expect through an ESPN player to stream these matches on US Open.org. Q. John, you share a lot of resources on‑site with CBS, kind of a combined production over the years. Do you see sort of the way you produce matches for the linear telecast changing a lot with this new setup in 2015? JOHN SKIPPER: There will, of course, be some changes. CBS has done a fantastic job at providing a world feed. We have benefited from that. We appreciate that. In 2015 ESPN will become the provider of the world feed. Q. I know you have a big extension planned, over $500 million. How important was it to put together a long‑term deal with ESPN? GORDON SMITH: It's very important. Stability going forward with the preeminent sports media outlet in the country is huge. It really gets us in a very stable position as we go out and start making the changes in the facility. We're going to transform not only the way it's delivered by ESPN, we're going to transform the tennis center. It's going to be a magnificent place. It's going to be the preeminent tennis facility in the world when we're done. Now we have the preeminent sports outlet in the world to partner with. Q. John, you were talking about every single match being streamed. Does that mean there are going to be cameras on every single court, even the way outer courts? JOHN SKIPPER: Yes. I'm not going to give you a specific timetable for that. What we've announced is that during the course of this term, back to the earlier question and answer about long‑term stability and partnership, that is something that we in partnership with the USTA expect to figure out here over the next few years. Q. Dave or Gordon, the fact that you're moving the women's semifinals to Thursday and men's to Friday, was that a consideration as to why CBS couldn't make an agreement to continue on with the USTA? DAVE HAGGERTY: No, that had nothing to do with the final decision in the negotiations. Absolutely not. CHRIS WIDMAIER: I want to thank everybody for taking the time today. I think the USTA feels like we've said what we need to say. John and Jason, do you feel the same way? JOHN SKIPPER: We do. CHRIS WIDMAIER: Very good. I do want to thank everybody. Great news for the USTA, for American tennis, and we'll be speaking with all of you soon. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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