<
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/01/14/why-the-australian-open-looks-different-for-some-this-year-broadcast-rights/>
"It’s no secret that the world of live sports is becoming increasingly
complicated due to the fractured nature of broadcast and streaming rights.
Between leagues like the NFL making sure their own streaming services aren’t
terribly useful and that finding any particular game requires Sherlock-ian
investigative efforts, these new and complicated deals that major sports
leagues and partners are entering into can deeply annoy their own fanbases.
And, sometimes, even the organizers of a particular event have to get creative
just to get fans some version of a live event in some form.
Take the Australian Open, for instance. We’re smack in the middle of this
particular tennis tournament. The problem is that the Australia Open doesn’t
even control all of the broadcasting deals for the event. It has some, but
other international rights were bought by broadcasters in those countries. So,
while the Australian Open does have a YouTube page, it can’t simply put live
footage of the matches on there.
But it can stream the matches live using video-game-like avatars, apparently.
Four-time Grand Slam winner Carlos Alcaraz got his campaign underway against
Alexander Shevchenko in Melbourne on Monday and fans were treated to an
alternative view of proceedings.
The two players took a much larger and rounded shape than normal as they
were depicted as cartoons similar to that which is seen on the hit Wii
Tennis games. Better still, their on-court actions were mimicked by the
animated figures, providing an extraordinary experience for tennis fans.
According to author and tennis reporter Bastien Fachan, the addition is down
to a broadcasting rights issue."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
