SMS proves the perfect match for Sky Sports Tennis at the US Open
Sky Sports Tennis uses SMS from Esendex to keep its crew match-ready.
Results
Quickly communicated with an outside broadcast (OB) crew of 38 team members.
Managed all daily staff communication including any emergency alerts needed during the tournament.
Challenge
To communicate with a ground team quickly and easily in real-time with the assurance that messages would be read.
Solution
SMS from Esendex
HQ
Isleworth, London, UK
Website
Summary
The US Open at Flushing Meadow in New York, the prestigious final grand slam in the Tennis Calendar, was televised by Sky Sports Tennis for two weeks during August and September 2024. The hugely ambitious tennis coverage included simultaneous live feeds from multiple courts via TV and streaming apps.
“Communicating with an outside broadcast crew of almost 40 needs to be quick and efficient. We’ve used email in the past but moving to SMS has been highly successful for us as we are able to send communication that we know our team receives and reads.
We used SMS from Esendex during the Golf Open in Scotland in 2024 and it worked really well, so we knew it would be ideal for the US Open.”
Joe Murray, Production Co-ordinator | Sky Sports
Challenge & Key Obstacles
The Sky Sports team needed to communicate quickly and easily as court timings, fixture and filming can change on a daily basis. SMS was chosen as emails were not always read by the team in a timely fashion. In a similar way, SMS trumped personal WhatsApp, as many of the OB crew had too many existing group chats relating to work at other international sporting fixtures.
“Because of its immediacy, SMS works when you need to communicate schedule changes quickly. It also makes sense in the event of an emergency at the venue.
SMS has increased our level of efficiency. Texts are also clearly branded and official-looking, so the team immediately recognises that they are work-related messages. We’ll certainly use SMS again at next year’s US Open.”
Joe Murray, Production Co-ordinator | Sky Sports
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