Serena Williams’s quest to complete the Grand Slam at the United States Open will be a production of the ESPN empire, viewable only on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN3.
ESPN became the tournament’s exclusive home for two reasons. First, CBS ended its 47-year run last year, unwilling to pay the stiff price to retain what it had, including the semifinals and finals. Second, Tennis Channel found the price of continuing to sublicense matches from ESPN too high.
So starting this year, the two-week U.S. Open will be exclusive to ESPN for $825 million through 2025.