Fans who expected to be able to check out the performance of João Fonseca, revelation of Brazilian tennis, at the Davis Cup were frustrated this weekend. The games were broadcast in the country by the little known Dsports Canal, available in Brazil on the Sky+streaming platform.
On social networks and groups of WhatsApp, fans sought information about where the confrontation against France, played in Orléans, would be displayed.
Some expressed difficulty in signing the channel to watch the games. Many were looking for pirate links on the internet. “It has already begun to humiliate a link because Sky+ remains error,” said a member of a group of fans on WhatsApp.
The Brazilian Tennis Confederation (CBT) had to issue an official note to explain that it was not to blame for the difficulty of access in Brazil. “The Davis Cup rights are exclusive to the International Tennis Federation (ITF),” the note said. “These rights were marketed by the ITF with the agency EnjoyTV, which in turn marketed with DSports for all of Latin America,” the text continued.
Last week, DSports announced that it has renewed a contract with ITF until next year. “We are proud to have the right of exclusive broadcasts for the next two years,” said Argentine Hernán Bidegain’s regional content director.
Rafael Westrupp, president of CBT, explained to Sheet that the CBT would only have the right to show (on its YouTube channel) or give in the rights of the games if they had occurred in Brazil.
To choose the host country, ITF checks who housed the previous confrontation. In this case, Brazil and France had last faced each other in Florianópolis in 2000; Therefore, this time the principal is France. If there is no history, the headquarters are drawn.
Westrupp said the CBT will charge ITF from DSports audience numbers in Brazil.
“We have the full conviction that it is a very low number, because simply the whole community of Brazil’s tennis, and people who are not tennis, are in contact with the confederation questioning. The vast majority have no access. Only a financial issue, the international federation should also look at the scope that a channel must offer, “he complained.
A Sheet He contacted Dsports employees in Brazil, but had not obtained official response from the channel until Sunday morning (2).
