Back in 2022, I wrote a couple of posts comparing and contrasting the on-demand tennis streaming services offered by the Tennis Channel and ESPN+. “One Thing ESPN Does Better than the Tennis Channel” and “One Thing the Tennis Channel Plus Does Better than ESPN” outlined how each service could potentially learn from each other. Earlier this year, I was brought to the stark realization that neither platform has improved much since that time.
ESPN+ still has the tennis channel beat on one key feature: the ability to pause and resume matches across devices. During coverage of the Australian Open earlier in January, I discovered that ESPN will also offer to resume for an event that is streaming elsewhere. In other words, I was able to synchronize TVs all over my house for an on-demand match. This is an amazing feature.
Tennis Channel Plus doesn’t have a “Resume” capability. When I watch a match on that service, switching devices forces me to note the run time on the video and then fast forward to that point on the new device. Unfortunately, sophisticated tennis fans know that the total run time of a match can be a “spoiler” of the outcome.
As a workaround for that issue, when I want to watch a match on Tennis Channel Plus in multiple rooms, I queue up the match on each device and then run around my house trying to hit play as close together as possible. However, that trick frequently ends in frustration because the Tennis Channel app crashes with astonishing regularity.
At the same time, the marketing propaganda that the Tennis Channel plays upon launch claims that they recently rebuilt the app from the bottom up. Since they have added no new features and the reliability remains extremely low, I am not convinced that their marketing team understands what that phrase really means.
On the other hand, ESPN+ scores low marks for not always adding basic descriptive text to the application thumbnails. For example, they frequently fail to list the names of the people playing each match, which is essential. Doubles matches are typically only identified as “Women’s Doubles” or “Men’s Doubles.” That is ridiculously unfriendly to fans.
Worse, I worry that these difficulties might skew the viewership algorithms. On some platforms, if a video isn’t watched all the way through or is abandoned early, it is chalked up as poor content. Additionally, if people can’t find the match they want, they might choose not to watch at all. Either of those outcomes is bad for broadcast tennis.
I probably watch more streamed tennis than the average fan, and almost all of those matches are time-shifted on demand. While I genuinely appreciate the modern conveniences of Tennis Channel Plus and ESPN+, they could both be much better. A couple of tweaks would probably significantly help their streaming viewership statistics. Come on, Tennis Channel and ESPN, make that happen!
