Australian Open 2012 TV Schedule: Slam Must Improve at Catering to Global Fans

I know several people that consider themselves tennis fans that haven’t watched much of the 2012 Australian Open because of the time schedule. People in the United States don’t want to stay up until 3:30 a.m. ET or wake up at that time just to watch the live event.

The Australian Open and tennis have to do a better job of catering to the global fans of the sport.

Watching a replay of it doesn’t give the tournament its justice because you are consistently making sure you don’t see the score and nowadays that’s just about impossible.

If I know who wins, I don’t want to watch the match.

Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova and every major participant in the Grand Slam event weren’t watched by many in this country because of the time issue.

Why not move the time back if more people can watch it around the world? Even just two or three hours would bring a much bigger audience than what they are receiving.

I almost forget that the Australian Open exists later in the campaign because I watch so few of the matches. That could also go hand-in-hand with it being the first Grand Slam of year, but it is mostly due to the fact that I’m not staying up all night to watch a three hour match.

People work, kids have school and others don’t want to stay up that late for one match. I realize that this may seem like nitpicking or whatever, but moving it back two or three hours would only help the event and their ratings, not damage them.

The Australian Open is a fantastic event, but it can be improved in one major way, and that’s by moving their marquee matches back a few hours so the whole world can watch.