Warner Bros. Discovery has reportedly acquired the media rights to the French Open, also known as Roland-Garros, according to a report from Brian Steinberg of Variety. The company will start broadcasting the international tennis tournament in 2025 to commence a 10-year contract worth a total of $650 million, as reported by Andrew Marchand of The Athletic. This moves the telecast away from NBC Sports, which has had the French Open on its air every year since 1983. As part of the deal, Warner Bros. Discovery will reportedly have the right to broadcast the event in the United States and continue doing so in Europe, which it has been doing within the Eurosport television networks since 1989.
The French Open marks the latest edition within the company’s sports portfolio, which currently includes Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League and the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament among other offerings. The company reached a deal with ESPN last month to license select College Football Playoff games, which begins with two first-round contests this year, as part of the expanded 12-team playoff. ESPN reached a six-year, $7.8 billion deal with the College Football Playoff in March to continue carrying tournament games through the 2031-32 season.
Upon the start of its deal to broadcast the French Open, Warner Bros. Discovery intends to make tournament coverage available on its linear television networks, the Max streaming service and Bleacher Report digital platform. This also adds an offering to the Venu joint streaming venture with The Walt Disney Company and FOX Corporation, although it is facing an antitrust lawsuit from FuboTV concurrent with a separate, unrelated class-action lawsuit pertaining to NFL Sunday Ticket.
Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly in negotiations with the National Basketball Association to try and retain broadcast rights to the league. While the reported media partners going forward are The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal and Amazon, Warner Bros. Discovery reportedly has the ability to match rights, although the breadth of that option is somewhat ambiguous.
The company could acquire a fourth broadcast package should it be made available to them as well, according to a recent report from Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports. Because of the uncertainty surrounding the resolution, however, the future of the NBA on TNT and Inside the NBA is in a state of flux. The league’s existing media rights deal with Warner Bros. Discovery for a reported $1.2 million annually expires at the end of next season.
