Tennis Channel Expands Distribution to More Than 52 Million
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Tennis Channel added 7.8 million homes in its most recent Nielsen universe estimate, making it the fastest growing network in all of television from the February-to-March universe calculations. The additional subscribers in the new March universe estimate bring the channel’s overall distribution reach to just above 52 million homes around the United States, as Tennis Channel is covering two of the sport’s most prestigious events: the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., and the Miami Open in South Florida.
The growth in homes goes against the trend of declining television-network subscriber counts. Tennis Channel has benefitted from a year as part of Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. {Nasdaq: SBGI}, which purchased the previously independent network in March 2016. Since then the channel has experienced consistent, robust carriage increases on most of the industry’s top providers, and is expected to reach more than 60 million viewing households in 2017. This has come at the same time Tennis Channel achieved new milestones in its viewership during major events and saw meaningful user increases for its Tennis Channel Plus digital subscription service.
“Tennis Channel is one of the driving factors behind the growth of this sport today, with younger audiences increasingly joining its fan base,” says Ken Solomon, president, Tennis Channel. “At long last, our broad distribution reach allows viewers around the country to see this amazing game on basic TV packages and enjoy great champions like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and the Williams sisters alongside rising stars Madison Keys and Jack Sock. Our omniplatform approach – combining linear TV, mobile authenticated TV Everywhere streaming, over-the-top Tennis Channel Plus, digital TennisChannel.com/Tennis.com and print Tennis magazine – allows us to provide subscribers with the most complete portfolio of brand applications in the entire sports-and-entertainment universe.”
Many providers carry Tennis Channel on Expanded Basic or Digital Basic packages. Among these are AT&T U-verse, Buckeye, Cable One, Cincinnati Bell, Comcast, DIRECTV, DISH, Frontier, Mediacom, Spectrum (previously Bright House, Charter, Time Warner Cable), Suddenlink and Verizon FiOS.
Tennis Channel is home to more televised tennis than all other U.S. networks combined and offers more than 6,000 matches throughout the year. Every March the channel becomes the round-the-clock television headquarters of the Indian Wells and Miami events, commonly referred to as “fifth slams” within the tennis industry. With an on-air talent roster that includes Hall of Famers Martina Navratilova, Jim Courier, Tracy Austin and Lindsay Davenport, as well as multi-decorated sportscasters like Mary Carillo, Ted Robinson and Brett Haber, the channel devotes 25 days and close to 520 hours overall to the tournaments.
