As sports TV channels continue to bleed subscribers, Tennis Channel is growing its distribution by about 25 million homes in only two years.
Tennis Channel's cable home distribution, shown since its launch year, is jumping significantly.
| Year |
Number of homes (000s) |
| 2017 |
60,000* |
| 2016 |
47,000 |
| 2012 |
36,000** |
| 2011 |
30,000 |
| 2010 |
29,000 |
| 2009 |
26,000 |
| 2008 |
24,000 |
| 2007 |
20,000 |
| 2006 |
10,000 |
| 2005 |
5,000 |
| 2004 |
2,500 |
| 2003 |
1,500 |
* Projected, based on new deals
** Distribution stayed at this level 2012-15
Source: Tennis Channel
Tennis Channel now is in 47 million homes, a figure it expects to increase to about 60 million homes next year, channel executives say, citing comScore figures. The channel had been stuck in about 36 million homes from 2012 to 2015.
With the U.S. Open Tennis Championships starting today, executives with America’s only tennis channel are eager to talk about their growing distribution, especially on Comcast, which Tennis Channel unsuccessfully sued in a bitter and long legal carriage fight that appears to be over.
“It is hard to explain the sense of pride and relief having fought this battle for 10 years,” Tennis Channel Chairman and CEO Ken Solomon said. “We can finally sleep at night knowing we now get to compete on a level playing field.”
A bubbly Solomon described the developments as a “watershed moment.” Passing the 50 million-home mark will allow the channel to become Nielsen-rated for the first time — a step that should occur next year. That will allow the channel to increase its advertising and sponsorship sales, Solomon said.
The key to Tennis Channel’s turnaround is a new owner, Sinclair Broadcasting, which bought the channel in January for $350 million. Thanks to its slate of local broadcast channels — Sinclair operates 164 television stations in 79 markets — Sinclair was able to increase Tennis Channel’s distribution during retransmission consent negotiations.
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“We can finally sleep at night knowing we now get to compete on a level playing field.”
— Tennis Channel Chairman and CEO Ken Solomon
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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As an independent channel that launched in 2003, Tennis Channel was relegated to poorly distributed sport tiers. The distribution gains have come from Sinclair pressuring cable operators to move the channel to digital basic tiers, Solomon said.
Ironically, cable operator Altice, whose territory includes the U.S. Open’s host market of New York City and Queens, still does not have a deal with Tennis Channel. Altice executives have said that they are looking to cut costs, and could resist adding another sports channel to their programming lineup. Altice is the largest cable operator in the country that does not carry Tennis Channel. It has around 3 million subscribers, mainly in New York and New Jersey.
Tennis Channel’s growth flies in the face of trends in the TV business that are seeing the country’s biggest sports channels lose subscribers at a significant clip. ESPN, for example, is in 88.8 million homes, according to Nielsen, down from one year ago when it was in 92.5 million homes. NBC Sports Network dropped from 83.8 million to 82.9 million in that same time frame, and Fox Sports 1 dropped from 83.9 million to 82.7 million in the past 12 months.
Tennis Channel’s distribution gains will come from planned rollouts on AT&T U-verse, Buckeye, Comcast, DirecTV, Mediacom, Cincinnati Bell and WOW.
