The Tennis Channel will nearly double its reach under a multiyear distribution agreement with satellite provider DirecTV.
"This is a watershed moment," network chairman and CEO Ken Solomon said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press. "If you're in the distribution business, this is what clearly and indelibly forever puts you on the map."
There isn't a firm date yet for the launch, Solomon said, but it probably will happen in late August, putting the Tennis Channel on tiers that reach roughly 8 million DirecTV subscribers. The Tennis Channel, which went on the air in 2003, is currently in about 10 million U.S. homes.
DirecTV also will carry a second feed of the Tennis Channel in high definition, starting in late November or early December.
"Kenny's done a great job at acquiring high-profile events," said Eric Shanks, DirecTV executive vice president of entertainment, "and he really is making the Tennis Channel the tennis channel."
As part of the agreement, all 16 million DirecTV customers will have access to the Tennis Channel's coverage of the French Open, which starts May 27.
The DirecTV distribution is the latest in a series of recent moves to expand the Tennis Channel's reach and lift its profile.
That includes hosting an ATP tournament, adding the U.S. Tennis Association as an investor, buying TV rights to a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, and an agreement with ESPN to share U.S. cable TV and multimedia rights for the French Open and Australian Open through 2011.
"There has been a very clear building process over the lasts 12 months here," Solomon said. "We're not done yet. That's all I can tell you. It's been a careful and calculated yet rapid building process."
