Shortly before Roland-Garros got underway last month, the post “Watching/Streaming Roland-Garros” expressed my trepidation about the move of the US broadcast rights to Warner Bros. Discovery. After two weeks of watching the tournament coverage on TNT Sports and Max, I’m back with an update: it was actually decent.
In particular, the Max platform has a feature the Tennis Channel should immediately implement. It is possible to seamlessly view a match that is currently in progress from the beginning. That capability came in handy when I wanted to take in the Women’s Doubles Final in its entirety before settling in for the Men’s Singles Championship later in the morning. However, I didn’t necessarily want to rise at 4 AM to make that happen. Instead, I started the match at my leisure, but was able to fast forward through commercials and set breaks to catch up to the live broadcast well before the men’s Final got underway. That feature provided an uninterrupted viewing experience that feels thoughtfully designed for tennis fans who prefer to watch matches on their own time.
That said, not everything about the Max experience was perfect. Navigation to locate match replays left a lot to be desired. Browsing for specific matches was a confusing maze to a counterintuitive location. On the other hand, the ability to query directly for a player by name is something I wish all tennis streaming services offered. There’s definitely room for improvement in how the platform categorizes and organizes tennis content, and it took considerable perseverance to navigate the learning curve. However, when the tournament was over, I realized that I would miss many aspects of what Warner Bros. Discovery provided.
Most of my Roland-Garros streaming came via the Max platform, which is the service that carried a stream of every match. Since Max is primarily a movie service, its algorithms correctly recommended tennis-related movies and documentaries to me. That is a savvy digital marketing move aimed at user retention once the live broadcasts of the tournament ended. Unfortunately, I had previously watched and reviewed most of their recommendations.
One notable exception was Being Serena, a five-part docuseries that chronicles Serena Williams’ journey through pregnancy, the birth of her daughter, and her return to tennis. I watched the first episode with the intention of binge-watching it and posting a review this week. Alas, the show did not hold my attention. Ultimately, I realized that I already knew the broad strokes of that story, and the docuseries didn’t offer enough new insight to inspire me to continue. I tapped out after that first episode.
I have terminated my Max subscription. However, I will be turning it on again as soon as qualifying for Roland-Garros gets underway in 2026. Despite the clunky navigation, I was generally pleased with the TNT Sports and Max coverage. That is fortunate because that media consortium has a lengthy multi-year deal for the Roland-Garros broadcast rights. If this year’s coverage is any indication, the tournament is in good hands.
