FSN has got to go

Not only has my FSN regional network. FSN Southwest, opted to show too little of the Sony Ericsson Open, it isn't even showing what its website says it is supposed to be showing. Last night, there was tennis scheduled, but none was shown. Today, there was supposed to have been four hours of tennis, but women's gymnastics popped up instead. I had arranged my day so that I could be home to watch the women's semifinal. I used to think no network's schedule could be more unreliable than ESPN's, but FSN is much, much worse.

The FSN contract with the ATP and the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour is for one year, after which it is to be evaluated. It is clear that ESPN no longer wants Indian Wells and Miami for financial reasons, and negotiating them for Tennis Channel still means a lot of fans will not get to see them. But considering that a lot of tennis fans do have Tennis Channel, that option may be the best.

At any rate, it would be an outrage for FSN to get these tournaments again unless some type of agreement is made for all of the FSN outlets to show a substantial portion of tournament play. And that ATP Sony Ericsson Open contract that requires that most of the matches shown be men's matches is also very irritating, but that is another battle.

Update: FSN Southwest cut off the Roddick-Federer match after the seventh game of the third set. Just goodbye, and onto the fishing show.

Insult to injury

It's bad enough that FSN Southwest is showing very little of Indian Wells. I waited all day to see coverage that isn't even live.

ESPN and FSN can both go to hell

ESPN has dumped Indian Wells coverage, of course, and FSN is not a network, but a series of regional networks. If you get FSN West, you get to see lots of the Pacific Life Open, and I think you get to see a lot of it if you have FSN North, too. I have FSN Southwest, and the coverage is terrible. And I've heard that some people have FSN channels with even worse coverage than FSN Southwest.

Thanks, ESPN.