Tennis Channel, Verizon Sign New Agreement
January 17, 2012
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES — Tennis Channel and Verizon FiOS TV have reached a new multiyear carriage agreement, it was announced by Patrick Wilson, senior vice president, distribution, Tennis Channel, and Terry Denson, vice president of global content strategy, Verizon.
Verizon has started rolling out Tennis Channel – with Grand Slam coverage of Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, French Open and the Australian Open, as well as Davis Cup, Fed Cup, and the men’s and women’s year-end championships – to FiOS TV subscribers in time for its 2012 Australian Open coverage. The channel is now available in the Texas, Florida, California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and upstate New York FiOS TV markets and will be available in all other FiOS markets by Wednesday (Jan. 18).
From 2005 to this past September, Verizon FiOS TV carried Tennis Channel through its affiliation with the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC). When Tennis Channel and the NCTC entered into a new carriage agreement on Sept. 3, FiOS TV opted to work directly with Tennis Channel for its own licensing arrangement. The result is a new, multiyear agreement that returns Tennis Channel to all FiOS TV customers who previously had access. Starting immediately, Tennis Channel is available to FiOS TV customers who subscribe to the FiOS TV Ultimate HD package, as well as the premium Sports Packages. Verizon plans to more widely roll out Tennis Channel next year.
Tennis Channel is the only single-sport network with coverage at all of its sport’s top-level events. In addition to tennis’ four major, Grand Slam competitions, the network has telecast rights to just about every tournament on the men’s and women’s professional circuits. Among these are the Olympus U.S. Open Series; ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events; “Fifth Slam” events in Miami and Indian Wells, Calif.; Davis Cup, Fed Cup and Hopman Cup; and the men’s and women’s season-ending championships. Throughout the year, the network’s on-air talent roster resembles a who’s who of tennis Hall of Famers and television personalities, featuring Martina Navratilova, John McEnroe, Lindsay Davenport, Tracy Austin, Bud Collins, Bill Macatee, Mary Carillo and Ted Robinson.
Tennis Channel is part of Verizon’s extensive FiOS offering, which includes a broad collection of programming on TV, with more than 540 all-digital channels including more than 140 HD channels, and 35,000 monthly video-on-demand titles. FiOS also provides countless next-generation interactive services, including FiOS TV Online and Flex View, which extend FiOS TV Video on Demand beyond the home to the Internet and a range of mobile devices; an advanced interactive media guide; free interactive applications like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and others; Media Manager, which allows customers to access on their TVs personal photos, music and videos from their computers; In-Home Agent, which assists customers in diagnosing and resolving a range of service issues; and the MY FiOS app, an easy-to-use mobile application that gives customers access to everything from movies, TV shows and personal content; to remote DVR access and control; to home and energy monitoring; to billing, account management and customer service tools.