The Tennis Channel
Encyclopedia
Tennis Channel is an American speciality channel with programming devoted to the game of tennis
. Founded in 2003, the network is owned by a group of investors including sports marketing
firm IMG
. Well known tennis professionals Pete Sampras
and Andre Agassi
are two of the many investors in this channel. The network's CEO is Ken Solomon. It is based in Santa Monica, CA.
, badminton
, racquetball
, table tennis
and paddle tennis
. Tennis Channel has extensive coverage of the Davis Cup
, Fed Cup
and Hopman Cup
as well as other tournaments throughout the year. Tennis Channel obtained the U.S. broadcast rights to the French Open, broadcasting them for the first time in 2007. Tennis Channel also puts on an ATP
tournament in Las Vegas called the Tennis Channel Open
.
As of March 1, 2007, Tennis Channel is available across the United States from most cable providers and on Dish Network
. In April, 2007, Tennis Channel reached an agreement to be carried on DirecTV
. The agreement included a free preview
of the 2007 French Open to all DirecTV subscribers. Full carriage of Tennis Channel by DirecTV was added as channel 217 on August 27, 2007. The network launched a 1080i
High Definition version in December 2007 named Tennis Channel HD. The Standard Definition network feed of the channel is broadcast domestically on cable satellite Galaxy 23 and the High Definition feed of the channel is broadcast on cable satellite Galaxy 13 and the channel originates its broadcasts out of Tennis Channel's own HD broadcast center in Culver City, CA.
In September 2009, Tennis Channel launched daily Court Report news segments, anchored by Cari Champion, Arlene Santana and Angela Sun.
rights for the French Open
beginning in 2007. These rights were previously held by ESPN2
and prior to that, USA Network
.
In January 2007, The Tennis Channel gained rights for coverage of The Australian Open
. The Tennis Channel will now share rights to the Australian Open with ESPN2. Both the Australian Open and French Open contracts with ESPN2 run through 2011.
In July 2007, Tennis Channel secured the broadcast rights for Wimbledon
through a multi-year deal with the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club
, Cablevision, Suddenlink Communications
, Mediacom
, WOW!, Knology
and GCI after the providers declined to accept a new agreement that the Tennis Channel made with the National Cable Television Cooperative of which they are members. Along with a fee increase the agreement also required that the Tennis Channel be moved from the optional sports package to digital basic service. Although both Verizon and Cablevision are calling the loss of the channel temporary, at this time it is unclear if and when the Tennis Channel will return.
On September 6, 2011, various phone customers including some who report that their number is registered with the U.S. Federal "Do Not Call" list started reporting receiving calls from 301-430-7551, which when called back answers: "Thank you for calling Tennis Channel. If your Tennis Channel service has been dropped by your television provider, call them immediately and urge them to put Tennis Channel back on. You may also consider switching providers. The following providers also carry Tennis Channel: (list of providers) Thank you very much for your support of Tennis Channel."
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
. Founded in 2003, the network is owned by a group of investors including sports marketing
Sports marketing
Sport marketing is divided into three sectors. The first is the advertising of sport and sports associations such as the Olympics, Spanish Football league and the NFL. The second concerns the use of sporting events, sporting teams and individual athletes to promote various products. The third is...
firm IMG
IMG (business)
IMG, originally known as the International Management Group is a global sports and media business headquartered in New York City.-History:...
. Well known tennis professionals Pete Sampras
Pete Sampras
Pete Sampras is a retired American tennis player and former world no. 1. During his 15-year tour career, he won 14 Grand Slam singles titles and became recognized as one of the greatest tennis players of all time....
and Andre Agassi
Andre Agassi
Andre Kirk Agassi is a retired American professional tennis player and former world no. 1. Generally considered by critics and fellow players to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Agassi has been called the best service returner in the history of the game...
are two of the many investors in this channel. The network's CEO is Ken Solomon. It is based in Santa Monica, CA.
Description and programming
The network broadcasts 24 hours a day and features live tournaments, news, one-on-one interviews, game analysis and skills instruction. It also features programming from other racquet sports such as squashSquash (sport)
Squash is a high-speed racquet sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball...
, badminton
Badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players or two opposing pairs , who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their...
, racquetball
Racquetball
For other sports often called "paddleball", see Paddleball .Racquetball is a racquet sport played with a hollow rubber ball in an indoor or outdoor court...
, table tennis
Table tennis
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight, hollow ball back and forth using table tennis rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net...
and paddle tennis
Paddle tennis
Paddle tennis is a game adapted from tennis and played for over a century. Compared to tennis, the court is smaller and has no doubles lanes, and the net is lower. Paddle tennis is played with a solid paddle as opposed to a strung racquet, and a depressurized tennis ball is used along with an...
. Tennis Channel has extensive coverage of the Davis Cup
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Britain and the United States. By...
, Fed Cup
Fed Cup
Fed Cup is the premier team competition in women's tennis, launched in 1963 to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the International Tennis Federation...
and Hopman Cup
Hopman Cup
The Hopman Cup is an annual international team tennis tournament held in Perth, Western Australia in early January each year, which plays mixed teams on a country by country basis...
as well as other tournaments throughout the year. Tennis Channel obtained the U.S. broadcast rights to the French Open, broadcasting them for the first time in 2007. Tennis Channel also puts on an ATP
Association of Tennis Professionals
The Association of Tennis Professionals or ATP was formed in 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to protect the interests of male professional tennis players. Since 1990, the association has organized the worldwide tennis tour for men and linked the title of the tour with the...
tournament in Las Vegas called the Tennis Channel Open
Tennis Channel Open
The Tennis Channel Open was a tennis tournament on the ATP International Series which was held for the first time in Las Vegas, Nevada from February 27 to March 5, 2006. In the men's singles final, James Blake defeated Lleyton Hewitt 7–5, 2–6, 6–3...
.
As of March 1, 2007, Tennis Channel is available across the United States from most cable providers and on Dish Network
Dish Network
Dish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...
. In April, 2007, Tennis Channel reached an agreement to be carried on DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
. The agreement included a free preview
Free preview
Free preview, sometimes referred to by the portmanteau nickname "freeview", is a term, most commonly used by cable television, referring to when cable systems offer a pay-TV service to customers for free for a short period of time.-History:...
of the 2007 French Open to all DirecTV subscribers. Full carriage of Tennis Channel by DirecTV was added as channel 217 on August 27, 2007. The network launched a 1080i
1080i
1080i is the shorthand name for a high-definition television mode. The i means interlaced video; 1080i differs from 1080p, in which the p stands for progressive scan. The term 1080i assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a frame size of 1920×1080 pixels...
High Definition version in December 2007 named Tennis Channel HD. The Standard Definition network feed of the channel is broadcast domestically on cable satellite Galaxy 23 and the High Definition feed of the channel is broadcast on cable satellite Galaxy 13 and the channel originates its broadcasts out of Tennis Channel's own HD broadcast center in Culver City, CA.
In September 2009, Tennis Channel launched daily Court Report news segments, anchored by Cari Champion, Arlene Santana and Angela Sun.
Grand Slam coverage
Tennis Channel scored a significant coup in August 2006, when it was announced that it had procured the U.S. cable televisionCable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
rights for the French Open
French Open (tennis)
The French Open |Roland Garros]]) is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks between late May and early June in Paris, France, at the Stade Roland Garros. It is the premier clay court tennis tournament in the world and the second of the four annual Grand Slam tournaments – the other three are...
beginning in 2007. These rights were previously held by ESPN2
ESPN2
ESPN2 is an American sports cable television network owned by ESPN. The channel debuted on October 1, 1993.Originally nicknamed "the deuce," ESPN2 was initially branded as a network for a younger generation of sports fans featuring edgier graphics as well as extreme sports like motocross,...
and prior to that, USA Network
USA Network
USA Network is an American cable television channel launched in 1971. Once a minor player in basic cable, the network has steadily gained popularity because of breakout hits like Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, White Collar, Monday Night RAW, Suits, and reruns of the various...
.
In January 2007, The Tennis Channel gained rights for coverage of The Australian Open
Australian Open
The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament held in the southern hemisphere. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was last contested on grass in 1987. Since 1972 the Australian Open has been held in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1988, the tournament became a hard court...
. The Tennis Channel will now share rights to the Australian Open with ESPN2. Both the Australian Open and French Open contracts with ESPN2 run through 2011.
In July 2007, Tennis Channel secured the broadcast rights for Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon , is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors...
through a multi-year deal with the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club
All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club
The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club , also known as the All-England Club, based at Aorangi Park, Wimbledon, London, England, is a private members club. It is best known as the venue for the Wimbledon Championships, the only Grand Slam tennis event still held on grass...
Carriage Dispute
On September 4, 2011 during the US Open, the Tennis Channel pulled its signal from Verizon FiOSVerizon FiOS
Verizon FiOS is a bundled Internet access, telephone, and television service which operates over a fiber-optic communications network. It is offered in some areas of the United States by Verizon Communications. Verizon was one of the first major U.S...
, Cablevision, Suddenlink Communications
Suddenlink Communications
Suddenlink Communications, formerly Cebridge Connections, is a top-10 cable broadband services provider in the United States with approximately 1.4 million subscribers. Suddenlink operates in 18 states in primarily medium-sized communities. With its corporate headquarters in St. Louis, MO,...
, Mediacom
Mediacom
Mediacom is a cable television and communications provider in the United States. Founded in July 1995, it serves primarily smaller markets in the Midwest and Southern United States. Formerly a publicly traded firm, it went private in a $600.0 million transaction in March 2011 and is, as of 2011,...
, WOW!, Knology
Knology
Knology Inc. is a cable company that formed in 1994 by ITC Holding Company, Inc, a telecommunications holding company in West Point, Georgia that also founded Internet service provider Mindspring. In late 1994, shortly after Knology's inception, two employees made a $600,000 investment to make...
and GCI after the providers declined to accept a new agreement that the Tennis Channel made with the National Cable Television Cooperative of which they are members. Along with a fee increase the agreement also required that the Tennis Channel be moved from the optional sports package to digital basic service. Although both Verizon and Cablevision are calling the loss of the channel temporary, at this time it is unclear if and when the Tennis Channel will return.
On September 6, 2011, various phone customers including some who report that their number is registered with the U.S. Federal "Do Not Call" list started reporting receiving calls from 301-430-7551, which when called back answers: "Thank you for calling Tennis Channel. If your Tennis Channel service has been dropped by your television provider, call them immediately and urge them to put Tennis Channel back on. You may also consider switching providers. The following providers also carry Tennis Channel: (list of providers) Thank you very much for your support of Tennis Channel."
Original series
- Best of 5
- Celebrity Tennis
- Destination Tennis
- Fit to Hit
- Major Flavor
- Murphy's Guide
- No Strings
- Only at the Open
- Open Access
- Signature Series
- Tennis Channel Academy
See also
- The Ski ChannelThe Ski ChannelThe Ski Channel is a Video On Demand Cable, Satellite and Telco television network distributed on Comcast, Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, Verizon FiOS, Brighthouse Networks, Cablevision, RCN, AT&T U-Verse and Cox Communications. The technical term for a channel of this type is VODnet...
(A new network from the founder of Tennis Channel, Steve BellamySteve BellamySteve Bellamy is a former rock musician, songwriter, and entrepreneur in sports and media as well as the writer/director for the film The Story starring Bode Miller, Lindsey Vonn and Hilary Swank...
)