Seven has won the free-to-air rights to the Roland Garros Grand Slam event for the next three years, and is promising a vastly expanded coverage compared with the latter years of Nine's two-decade association.
Having this year lost the Australian Football League rights after 44 years, Seven is keen to expand its sports portfolio. In tennis, the Davis Cup rights holder also has ongoing long-term associations with the Australian Open and three lead-up events.
Nine continues to telecast the Wimbledon and US Open championships under deals with several years still to run. While Nine restricted its French Open telecast to the final four days once Foxtel won unlimited pay-TV access, Seven intends to show all 14 sessions, from about 10.30pm each night. Hewitt, the US Open champion closing in on the year-end No.1 ranking, is the catalyst.
"Obviously with Lleyton Hewitt's success, the prospect of him being at the business end of Grand Slam tournaments persuaded us that this is one we really wanted to be involved with," Seven's head of sport, Harold Anderson, said.
"No matter how much money you've got, there's actually not another sport out there that can replace AFL, so that's not our objective.
"I think what we want to do is take a leadership position in things like golf and tennis and other things we do pretty well, like rugby union, and we'll continue to pursue the main events."
