DIRECTV’s 2014 French Open Experience Caters to Rabid Tennis Fans

French Open fans will be getting beaucoup de tennis along with new fan-friendly features with DIRECTV’s interactive, bonus coverage of early round matches of the French Open May 25-June 1. In partnership with Tennis Channel and ESPN, DIRECTV’s 2014 French Open Experience will deliver expanded HD coverage of all the action on the clay courts of Roland Garros during the first eight days of the tournament – only on DIRECTV.  The broadcasts begin each day at 11 a.m. ET.

In addition to featuring up to six live matches at the same time on the French Open Mix Channel (Ch. 701), the new “Dynamic Mix” will enlarge each screen size of the remaining matches as others conclude. Also new this year:

There will be a Twitter feed for social commentary on each match; a ticker at the bottom of the mix screen providing real-time scores, commentary and messages; a new look and feel for the interactive app and broadband enabled features displaying complete tournament draws for Men’s, Women’s, Mix Doubles and player headshots.

Viewers can press the RED remote button to access an interactive menu of features that include:

• My Players – tag their favorite players and see bio information, match schedule and results
• Player Bio – for bio information, their scorecard or add a player to their favorites list
• Match Schedule: Scores from matches in progress on the court channels (Chs. 703-707), plus the schedule for upcoming matches.
• Recent results: Real-time scores for both in-progress and completed matches.
• Men’s and Women’s Draws: A complete round-by-round chart that shows which players are still in competition and how they got there.

The French Open Experience is the second of four Grand Slam tennis events that DIRECTV will offer this year at no extra charge for customers. Combining multiple video feeds and interactive TV technology, DIRECTV’s tennis and golf coverage is designed to give the true fan a totally immersive viewing experience.  With the tournament beginning this week, I thought information about DIRECTV’s interactive options would be a nice side-bar/note drop to complement any bigger French Open stories and something your readers would be interested in hearing about.