Sky Sports Tennis explained: launch date, listings and how to watch
Sky Sports Tennis is Sky’s dedicated channel for all things tennis, including exclusive live broadcasts of US Open, WTA Tour and ATP Tour matches. The channel launches on February 11, 2024, and will be available to viewers in the UK and Ireland.
News of Sky’s expanded tennis coverage broke in November, but confirmation of the new channel arrived later, on January 30. This guide will tell you all you need to know about Sky Sports Tennis – how to watch the channel, which tournaments it will air, and who will lead its coverage.
Which tennis competitions will be aired on Sky Sports Tennis?
Sky has bought the exclusive British and Irish rights to several of the biggest competitions in tennis, including:
The US Open (one of tennis’ four Grand Slam tournaments)
ATP Tour tournaments (the men’s professional circuit)
WTA Tour tournaments (the women’s professional circuit)
Masters 1000 (events in Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Rome and Cincinnati)
The ATP Finals
The WTA Finals
If you want to watch these tournaments live on TV, you’ll only be able to do so via Sky Sports Tennis.
Altogether, Sky Sports Tennis is set to broadcast over 80 tournaments and over 4,000 matches per year.
The first tournaments to be shown on Sky Sports Tennis will include:
Feb 11-17: WTA Qatar TotalEnergies Open, Doha, Qatar
Feb 11*-18: ATP ABN Amro Open, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Feb 19-24: ATP Qatar ExxonMobil Open, Doha, Qatar
This initial flurry of hard-court competitions will provide some fascinating glimpses of top players’ early season form, with Australian Open winners Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka both set to feature.
British fans will be eagerly (or nervously) tuning in as Andy Murray looks to turn around the start to his season in Qatar. The Scot has pledged to “keep fighting and working to produce the performances I know I’m capable of,” following a winless start to 2024.
An even bigger date for your diaries: the 2024 US Open takes place from August 26 - September 8, with live action shown exclusively on Sky Sports Tennis.
Sky Sports Tennis is set to support multi-match viewing, with multiple live court streams available via mobile app, Sky TV app, red button channels and NOW Bonus Streams. Selected matches (such as tournament finals) will be available to watch back on-demand.
How to get Sky Sports Tennis
Sky Sports Tennis will come under the Sky Sports umbrella of channels. It will be available to qualifying Sky Sports, NOW TV, Virgin Media and EE TV customers.
In order to access the tennis channel, Sky viewers will need to have Sky Sports Complete, Action or Arena as part of your TV package. However, NOW TV viewers have the alternative option to watch Sky Sports Tennis content via a NOW Sports Day and Month Membership.
NOW TV Sports Memberships start from £11.99 for one day, or £34.99 for one month.
See NOW TV Sports Membership deals
If you’re new to Sky TV, then this could be a good opportunity to set yourself up with a package. There are a few different ways to get Sky, including:
Sky Glass: a package including Sky TV and other content services such as Netflix. The content directly streams via a Sky Glass TV, which is included in the package. You’ll need to select a package featuring Sky Sports Tennis.
The best-value Sky Glass deal including Sky Tennis that's currently available costs £34/mo for the first three months, before rising to £60/mo for the remainder of an 18-month contract. (The average monthly price works out at around £55.57.) This deal gets you a 43" Sky Glass TV, eight Sky Sports Channels, Sky TV and Netflix – so you'll have plenty to watch if you ever tire of the tennis.
View the latest Sky Glass dealsSky Stream: the same content offerings as Sky Glass, but streamed via a set-top-style box. Again, be sure to select a package featuring Sky Sports Tennis.
The best Sky Stream deal with Sky Sports Tennis that you can get right now is a £46/mo bundle on an 18-month contract, which provides Sky Stream, Sky Sports, Sky TV and Netflix.
View the latest Sky Stream deals
How to find Sky Sports Tennis on Sky TV
If you have Sky TV with Sky Sports, you’ll be able to find Sky Sports Tennis at channel number 408 on launch day (February 11) and the following day. The channel will move to its permanent home, channel number 407, on February 13.
Alternatively, you can find Sky Sports Tennis via Voice Control on Sky Glass, Sky Stream or Sky Q. Just say one of the following voice commands:
“New balls please”
“It was on the line”
“Sky Tennis”
“Sky Sports Tennis”
“Tennis channel”
Sky will then serve up its tennis channel automatically.
Can I still watch tennis on Amazon Prime or BBC?
The launch of Sky Sports Tennis will no doubt have led some tennis fans to question whether they’ll still be able to watch the sport via their existing media provider.
Sky Sports holds the live broadcasting rights to a vast swathe of ATP and WTA tournaments for five years, starting 2024. During that period (and perhaps beyond), these tournaments will no longer be broadcast live on Prime Video, in a blow to tennis-loving subscribers to Amazon’s service.
The good news is that you’ll still be able to watch the UK’s showpiece tournament, Wimbledon, on the BBC. Meanwhile, Roland-Garros (the French Open) and the Australian Open will continue to be broadcast by Eurosport.
Which pundits and commentators will appear on Sky Sports Tennis?
Sky Sports has confirmed that the following sports broadcasting stalwarts will head up coverage on Sky Sports Tennis:
Presenter: Gigi Salmon
Commentator: Jonathan Overend
Pundit: Tim Henman
Pundit: Laura Robson
Given Sky Sports Tennis’ all-year, 24-hours-a-day schedule, we’d expect several different broadcasters and co-commentators to appear on the channel throughout the year, in addition to the core team.
*The qualification round of the ABN AMRO Open 2024 starts on February 10, one day before the launch of Sky Sports Tennis.
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