To mark the French Open at Roland Garros from May 23rd to June 5th, the France Télécom Group is offering “Tennis Everywhere”, a multi-access audiovisual offer that will give the public the opportunity to follow the tournament, live or taped, whatever network they use. For this offer, MaLigne tv and GlobeCast, a subsidiary of France Télécom, have partnered to develop a package of television channels that will allow viewers to watch live broadcast of all matches on the seven main courts at Roland Garros.
With MaLigne tv, tennis fans will be able to watch the matches in digital quality, without interruption or commercial breaks. An optional commentary by France Télévisions sports journalists will be available. There is no additional subscription or surcharge for subscribers to MaLigne tv who have a pay-TV package.
GlobeCast will transmit the programs over fiber optics from the French Open to the MaLigne tv IP video headend. The audiovisual signals will travel through the GlobeCast technical center in Paris where they will be encoded in MPEG2, multiplexed, then encapsulated in an IP flow to create the program package.
In addition to seven television channels, the package will include a mosaic screen to allow simultaneous viewing of the seven programs. MaLigne tv will also offer an exclusive Video on Demand (VoD) service so that viewers can follow the tournament based on their own schedules. They will be able to view matches whenever they like. The day’s tape will be made available just a few hours after the end of the match. Viewers can then watch the parts of the tape they want whenever they choose.
This service, exclusively for MaLigne tv subscribers, will be provided via a fully secure pay-per-view system. And a schedule of legendary matches (a retrospective on the 2004 tournament, the 1983 Noah-Wilander final and more) is available as of May14th. Each match will cost between 1 and 3 euros to view.