TNT Sports enters its second week covering the French Open for the first time, and it’s unclear whether the venture has been a success.
Little in the way of viewership data has trickled out, but the clearest picture we have so far comes from The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch. Per Deitsch, TNT has averaged 292,000 viewers during the French Open. According to the network, that’s an increase in the audiences that Tennis Channel and NBC attracted during the same period last year.
Through eight days of coverage, TNT has averaged 292,000 viewers for the French Open. That’s an increase, per WBD, over the Tennis Channel and NBC for the same time period.
Anecdotally, the sentiment off the coverage seems more positive than negative. So far a win for WBD.
— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) June 4, 2025
But really, the data leaves us with more questions than answers. For one, it’s unclear whether the 292,000 figure includes both TNT and truTV or just TNT. Should it include both networks, it’s a bit of an unfair comparison to just Tennis Channel, which only aired one broadcast at a time.
Additionally, we don’t have a clear baseline for TNT’s daytime viewership to begin with. What are daytime reruns of NCIS typically averaging? TNT is paying $65 million annually to air the French Open. The hope is that the event’s viewership will safely surpass the replacement-level programming.
For now, we can only take the network’s word for it. Per a press release issued by TNT on Wednesday, total hours watched across TNT, truTV, and the Max streaming service are up 53% year-over-year. TNT-only viewership is up 23%.
This is a press release that gets sent out when the TV ratings aren’t good. pic.twitter.com/h96HPIkUVP
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) June 4, 2025
We’ll have a fuller picture after the tournament concludes. Typically, the success of tennis majors is not measured by the early rounds but rather by the number of viewers the finals attract. It seems unlikely that TNT, a cable channel, would be able to beat out NBC, a broadcast network for the French Open finals, but you never know. Perhaps TNT has built more momentum throughout the tournament than NBC and Tennis Channel have in previous years, and that will translate into a larger audience come this weekend.
For now, the jury is still out.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.