The all-Italian semi-final between Flavio Cobolli and Matteo Arnaldi at Roland Garros could be broadcast free-to-air on Nove. Warner Bros. Discovery, which holds the exclusive rights to the Parisian tournament until 2030, is in fact evaluating the possibility of making an event that represents a historic page for Italian tennis accessible to all.
Roland Garros can currently be viewed for a fee through Eurosport, available on the group’s streaming platforms (HBO Max and Discovery+) and through partner operators such as Dazn, Timvision and Prime Video. A discussion is reportedly underway with these individuals to obtain the necessary green light for the free-to-air broadcast of the meeting.
The possible choice would not derive from a regulatory obligation, but from a commercial decision of the issuer. The new provisions on events of particular national importance, which provide for the free-to-air broadcast of the Slam semi-finals and finals with the presence of Italian tennis players, will in fact only come into force upon the expiry of the existing television agreements.
In the case of Roland Garros, Warner Bros. Discovery renewed the contract with the organizers of the tournament until 2030 in June 2025, before the publication in the Official Journal of the new list of events to be guaranteed free-to-air. For this reason the rule does not apply to the current agreement.
The possibility of following the match between Cobolli and Arnaldi for free therefore remains linked to the will of the broadcaster, who in the next few hours could decide to open one of the most significant events in the recent history of Italian tennis to the general public.
