The National Bank Open, which used to be called The Rogers Cup, is taking place the next few weeks in Montreal and Toronto. This used to be a pretty big deal, bringing in some of the best names in tennis. But the Toronto Sun complains that this year, Rogers seems to be cheapening out on its coverage of the annual event, the biggest such tourney in Canada.
"In what would seem to be a puzzling move to cut costs by Sportsnet – especially given owner Rogers long history with the event – viewers are being short-changed to the point of being embarrassing.
For the first week of action, anyway, Sportsnet is pulling in the ATP world feed to air on its platforms, a bare-bones production that is in stark contrast to what the network showed in the past and pays minimal attention to the stories that matter most to viewers here."
Sportsnet's coverage completely ignored covering the top ranked Canadian in the tournament, who lost and is now out. All this because the provider thought other matches were of more interest. In other words, there's some "love" lost between the network and viewers.
Rogers does intend to feature more local coverage on Sportsnet, but not until next week. By then, it's hard to say if there will be any Canadians left to cover.
Sportsnet serves up embarrassing double fault on inept coverage of National Bank Open
Dale Patterson wrote: