Strike kills Paris tennis audio
June 3, 2013
By Chris Forrester
Spanish viewers to Canal Plus’ coverage of the important Roland Garros tennis tournament will not be able to hear the grunts from the players or the spectator’s applause, because a strike by technicians at Canal Plus means no audio, or commentary, from the matches.
The tournament is wildly popular in Spain because of the regular on-court success of Spaniard Rafael Nadal.
The strike is doubly damaging because the games are not being shown on Spanish terrestrial TV. The cash-strapped public broadcaster cannot afford to but TV rights this year but had asked permission to cover just one match per day. The French Open rights holders reportedly turned the application down, although Nadal and his supporters are aid to be fiercely arguing that the decision be reversed.