You can watch the US Open on ESPN and ESPN+ in the United States through 2037, with ABC airing select weekend matches. The tennis major runs late August to early September, with day sessions typically starting at 11 a.m. and night sessions at 7 p.m. Eastern. Access requires a cable login, a streaming subscription, or a free over-the-air antenna for ABC windows.
This guide explains the mechanism behind those answers. It covers how rights deals are structured, why the calendar shifts year to year, which edge cases break the simple answer, and what to verify before paying for anything.
How Broadcast Rights Split the US Open
The United States Tennis Association sells media rights territory by territory, and each buyer resells access through its own distribution chain. ESPN holds US rights to the tournament under a 12-year extension announced in 2024, reported at USD 2.04 billion, that runs from 2026 through 2037. In the United States, this makes ESPN's family of channels and its streaming app the primary destination for most matches.
The structure matters because it determines what you can actually see. ABC, which is owned by the same parent company as ESPN, carries a small number of windows, historically weekend afternoon coverage. Those windows are the only ones available free over the air with an antenna. Everything else requires authentication through a pay-TV provider or a direct subscription.
Outside the United States, the same logic applies with different buyers. In the UK, Sky Sports has held rights in recent years. In Canada, TSN and RDS have carried the event. In Australia, Nine's platforms have broadcast it. Rights cycles change, so verify your country's current holder locally rather than relying on any list, including this one.
One level deeper: rights deals specify not just who broadcasts but how many courts, whether streaming is included, and whether replay or on-demand clips are permitted. That is why two services in the same country can show wildly different amounts of the tournament.
The Calendar Mechanism and Why Dates Move
The US Open is a two-week hard-court major held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York. The main draw typically begins the last Monday of August. The men's final usually lands on the second Sunday of September, though scheduling changes have moved it in some years.
The timing is not arbitrary. The tournament sits at the end of a hard-court swing that begins in July, and its dates are set to leave a gap before indoor events in Europe. When the calendar shifts, it is usually because the preceding Masters events moved or because labor and facility logistics at the venue required adjustment.
Here is how the typical tournament window is structured:
| Phase | Typical timing | What it means for viewers |
|---|---|---|
| Qualifying rounds | Late August, days before main draw | Free or low-cost coverage on USTA and ESPN platforms |
| Main draw, first rounds | Last Monday of August | Day and night sessions, most courts streamed |
| Middle rounds | First week of September | Fewer outer courts, more featured-court coverage |
| Semifinals | Second Thursday and Friday of September | Two matches per day, prime-time windows |
| Finals weekend | Second Saturday and Sunday of September | Women's final Saturday, men's final Sunday |
Two scheduling details trip people up. First, night sessions are a separate ticket and a separate broadcast window, so a subscription that covers day play may not cover the marquee evening matches. Second, weather delays in New York in late summer are common, and broadcasters extend coverage when matches run long. A match scheduled for 7 p.m. can finish after midnight Eastern.
The practical consequence: do not plan around a fixed finish time. Plan around a window.
Regional Rights and the Access Chain
The phrase "where can I watch the US Open" has a different answer depending on which country you are in, and the answer changes more often than people expect. Rights are sold in multi-year packages, and a holder in one cycle may not be the holder in the next.
In the United States, the access chain looks like this. ESPN's linear channels carry the main coverage. ESPN+ streams additional courts and on-demand content. ABC carries select windows free over the air. A cable, satellite, or live-TV streaming subscription with ESPN included unlocks the linear channels and, through authentication, the app.
The authentication step is where most confusion happens. A subscription to a live-TV service that includes ESPN typically also grants app access, but the reverse is not always true. An ESPN+ subscription alone does not unlock linear ESPN channels. That distinction matters because ESPN+ is sold as a standalone product and is often cheaper than a full live-TV package.
Internationally, the same pattern repeats with local providers. The reliable method is to check the tournament's official website, which lists broadcast partners by territory, or to search your country's major sports broadcaster directly.
Common Misconceptions About Access
Several beliefs about watching the US Open are outdated or simply wrong, and they lead people to pay for the wrong thing.
A subscription to a sports streaming bundle does not guarantee access to every court. Some packages carry only featured-court feeds. Free over-the-air coverage exists but is limited to the ABC windows, which are a small fraction of total match hours. VPN workarounds for geo-blocked streams violate most providers' terms of service and can result in account termination. "Free trial" offers often require a payment method and auto-renew at full price after the trial period ends. Highlights and clips posted on social platforms are not a substitute for live access and are frequently region-restricted.
The counterintuitive detail: paying more does not always mean seeing more. A cheaper service that carries the right channel can outperform an expensive bundle that carries only a secondary feed. The variable that matters is which channels and apps the package actually includes, not the sticker price.
A professional caveat worth stating plainly: broadcast arrangements are commercial agreements that can change mid-cycle, and no third-party summary, including this article, can guarantee what will be available in a future tournament year. Verify against the official broadcaster list before committing money.
Practical Steps to Confirm Access Before You Pay
The most reliable approach is to work backward from the tournament to your own setup. Do this in order.
First, confirm the current US rights holders by checking the tournament's official broadcast page. As of recent cycles, that means ESPN and ABC, but confirm rather than assume.
Second, check whether your existing TV or streaming package includes ESPN. Log in to your provider's channel lineup or app and search for the channel directly. If it appears, test the app authentication before the tournament starts, not on opening day.
Third, decide whether you need ESPN+ for additional court coverage. If you mainly want the featured matches and finals, linear ESPN may be sufficient. If you follow outer-court matches or specific players early in the draw, the extra streaming tier matters.
Fourth, if you want the free option, confirm that ABC's signal reaches your location with an antenna. Coverage varies by market, and indoor antennas perform inconsistently.
Fifth, if you are outside the United States, identify your local rights holder first. Do not assume a US subscription will work abroad, because geo-restrictions apply.
A concrete threshold to use: if the total cost of your planned package exceeds what you would spend on a few days of a live-TV pass, a short-term pass timed to the finals weekend is usually the better value. Price the tournament window, not the full year.
Limitations and What This Guide Cannot Tell You
This article explains stable mechanisms: how rights are sold, why the calendar moves, and how the access chain works. It cannot tell you with certainty which service will carry a given match in a future year, because those arrangements are commercial and change on their own schedule.
Specific prices, package contents, and channel lineups were not independently verified for this article and should be treated as illustrative of structure rather than current fact. Verify them directly with providers.
Likewise, scheduling details such as exact session start times and final dates are announced annually and can shift. Treat any specific date as a planning estimate until the official schedule is published.
For a low-stakes consumer-information topic like this, no medical, legal, or financial disclaimer applies. The main risk is paying for access you cannot use, and the mitigation is verification before purchase.