Sky Sports has dropped its coverage of the US Open tennis tournament after 25 years.
The broadcaster has traditionally struck a year-by-year deal to sub-license the rights to the Grand Slam tournament from Eurosport, which is owned by Discovery, and aired coverage on its own sports channels.
The pay-TV giant has chosen not to strike a deal to broadcast this year’s tournament, bringing an end to one of its longest major sports rights deals.
According to the Daily Mail some Sky staff blame the spiralling cost of Premier League rights for cutbacks in areas such as tennis.
However, Sky points out that it has struck at least 20 rights deals since striking a deal to pay £11m a game for Premier League matches in February last year.
Notable deals include securing the Open Championship golf tournament from the BBC, which had been broadcast free-to-air for 61 years.
It also bought the exclusive rights to all Formula One races bar the British Grand Prix.
Sky says it remains committed to tennis with rights such as the ATP world tour, which culminates each year with finals at London’s O2 venue.
The US Open tennis tournament will still be available for Sky viewers to watch on Eurosport.
