Australian Open on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN+ and ESPN3:  First Ball to Last Ball Coverage Starts January 19

• ESPN+ Direct-To-Consumer Streaming Service to Offer 500 Matches Live and on Demand
• 100+ Live Hours on TV plus Afternoon Encores of Overnight Action
•     ESPN App with Every Match Live from all 16 Courts via ESPN+, ESPN3
• New in 2020:  Entire Australian Open Qualifying on ESPN+ Starts Monday, Jan. 13, at 6 p.m. ET
• Wide-Open Women’s Field; No Man under 31 has Won a Major

(January 13, 2020) Tennis’ first Major of a new decade – the 2020 Australian Open, starting Sunday, Jan. 19, with every match available across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN+ and ESPN3 – will see a women’s field that is both wide open and getting younger at the top whereas the greats of the men’s game continue to emerge triumphant on the final Sunday of Majors.  Daily marathon telecasts from Melbourne, totaling more than 100 hours of television plus 1,400 hours streaming, will culminate with the Women’s and Men’s Championships on February 1 and 2, respectively, both at 3:30 a.m. ET.

New for 2020 is coverage of qualifying on ESPN+.  Beginning Monday, Jan. 13 (Tuesday in Melbourne), all 224 qualifying matches will be presented from 13 courts each night starting at 6 p.m. through Thursday, Jan. 16.

Coverage Highlights

• After the qualifying on ESPN+, ESPN2 will again present daily, marathon, prime-time and overnight telecasts from Melbourne (at 7 p.m. the first night, thereafter at 9 p.m.) through the women’s semifinals; later action airs on ESPN.
• Starting each night at 7 p.m. from Day 2 (Monday, Jan. 20) through Day 13, coverage begins on ESPN+ — the multi-sport, direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service from The Walt Disney Company Direct-to-Consumer & International (DTCI) and ESPN — with all 16 courts available.  ESPN2 and ESPN3 join later, generally at 9 p.m.
• ESPN2 will air the Women’s semifinals on Wednesday, Jan. 29, at 10 p.m. and ESPN will air the Men’s semifinals on Thursday, Jan. 30, and Friday, Jan. 31, both at 3:30 a.m.
• ESPN+ and ESPN3, streaming on the ESPN App, will combine to present every match (singles, all doubles, juniors, legends and wheelchair competitions) – 1,400 hours.
• ESPN+ will present all three doubles championships (men’s, women’s, mixed) plus the Boys’ and Girls’ Singles Championships and the Wheelchair Championships.
• ESPN+ will also be home to all of its completed matches throughout the tournament for on-demand viewing (as ESPN3 is for its matches), as well as a daily highlights show which will be posted soon after the completion of play each day.
• More than 40 additional hours will be aired on ESPN2 during the afternoon recapping the action from the overnight telecasts, generally at 2 p.m.

MORE TV & DIGITAL MEDIA, AT HOME AND ABROAD

ESPN.com will have extensive previews, reviews, analysis, the latest news, polls, videos and more.

ESPN Interactive TV will present a six-screen mosaic on DIRECTV featuring the ESPN/Tennis Channel linear feed and five TV courts, during the first seven days of the tournament.  Sam Gore will host with Luke Jensen.

ESPN Deportes will present extensive, live coverage of the tournament across multiple platforms.  Wall-to-wall Spanish-language coverage will also be available via streaming on the ESPN App, featuring coverage of all rounds, the quarterfinals and the women’s semifinals.  The men’s semis and both Championships will be televised live on ESPN Deportes. Online, ESPNDeportes.com will also provide up-to-the-minute news and information including results, recaps and chats.

ESPN Classic will air memorable Australian Open matches throughout January and during the tournament, often in morning hours.

ESPN International will provide extensive coverage of live HD action to tennis fans via its networks in Spanish-speaking Latin America (200 hours), Brazil (235 hours) and the Caribbean (104 hours).  Showcasing the biggest names in tennis, broadcasts will air in three languages, including Spanish in Mexico, Central America & South America; Portuguese in Brazil; and English in the Caribbean.  ESPN2 Brazil will televise over 110 hours of live complementary coverage throughout the early rounds, (Latin Brazil has over 130 live hours) while ESPN Tres North and ESPN2 South will air over 70 hours of additional Spanish-language coverage. ESPN Play will also stream every single match on every court.

In addition, ESPN will also televise two two-hour “Best Match of the Day” daily (Spanish only).  In Canada, TSN (English) and RDS (French) will again provide ESPN coverage on television and digital services, while in India, the SONY ESPN platform will carry live coverage.

ESPN Play (Watch ESPN in Brazil), ESPN’s broadband service in Latin America and the Caribbean will provide wall-to-wall coverage of the year’s first Grand Slam, streaming live from every available televised court, including the men’s & women’s quarterfinals, semifinals and finals plus all three doubles championships (men’s, women’s, mixed), the Boys’ and Girls’ Singles Finals, Legends matches plus the Wheelchair Finals.  Live streaming action will be available throughout Latin America and the Caribbean in English, Spanish and Portuguese language.

ESPN and Tennis

Tennis has been part of ESPN since its first week on the air, providing numerous memorable moments from around the world, but it has never been as important as today, with the unprecedented position of presenting three of the sports Major events from start to finish (Australian Open, Wimbledon, US Open, with exclusivity at the latter two).

2020 AUSTRALIAN OPEN

(For these charts, all times are Eastern, and each day “begins” at 6 a.m. ET.

Therefore, the listing Mon., Jan. 27, at 3 a.m. ET is actually very late on Monday night.)