Time for our quarterly “why is it so freaking hard to watch tennis in the U.S.?” discussion.
It seems like ESPN/ESPN2/ESPN3 and ABC are broadcasting substantial amounts of Wimbledon this year including matches from every round, but ESPN+ also has additional content.
Does anyone know what exactly ESPN+ allows you to watch that wouldn’t be broadcasted on cable channels?
I’m just looking to watch the marquee matchups from each round: I don’t need to see every single match.
Unless it changed from last year, ESPN+ has basically all the men’s and women’s matches and a lot of doubles stuff. I don’t recall not being able to watch a match I wanted to last year. I guess they could have changed since 2022.
I complain a lot about French Open coverage in the US, but Wimbledon isn’t a problem for me.
Feels like ESPN+ has all the matches, where as the main televised matches jump around to all the courts.
tennistream.com or ctrl+f on https://www.usagoals.biz/live-tennis
It sounds like you just want the big courts, so ESPN should suffice, but they’re in control of what you see. If you want outside courts, get ESPN+. ESPN+ has the potential to not give you access to the quarters on, however. Be warned. Sometimes I have to watch in Spanish because they don’t give you access to the English feed, and sometimes not even Spanish is an option. You can try messing with the schedule to get an idea, but of course it’s subject to change and vague at this point. See July 11 where you can only watch that QF in Spanish if you’re on ESPN+: https://www.espn.com/watch/schedule/_/type/upcoming/categoryId/aa07e63d-cf6e-3705-9c8d-8d5208e6af14/startDate/20230711
Free trial to YouTube tv for ESPN+ is a great way, and I usually do that for my phone and tv, but I also do a vpn to England and watch on BBC, which worked great last year, and had matches saved to watch after the fact, not just live only
Will ESPN carry the final? I’ve run into the problem in the past where they have all the obscure matches but the final is on another network.
I bought a Tennis Channel subscription during the French Open thinking I’d be able to watch every major this year. It was NICE for that tourney. But Wimbledon was a rude awakening. It’s been elusory for me. Haven’t seen a single match.
How do you get the Spanish feed? Just by changing the language in the website settings?
No, it’s just an option already there. It’ll usually say “(SPA)” on the thumbnail in my ESPN app (Roku) right next to the English feed. On the website, if you click the link I gave above for example, it lists “En Español-2023 The Championships, Wimbledon (Cuartos de Final)” as an option for ESPN+, ESPN3, and ESPN Deportes.
Yep, all of the replays are saved and you can watch them at anytime. Unless they changed things from last year