Tennis Channel International Responds to Pandemic With Live Programming The OTT service has streamed more than 1,000 matches since its launch in May By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Thursday, January 21, 2021 - 12:00 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
When Tennis Channel International was launched in Germany last May, the OTT service didn't intend to broadcast live tennis programming. But COVID-19 and its impact on the tennis world opened up opportunities that were unforeseen only months earlier.
When we launched, says Tennis Channel SVP, international, Andy Reif, we thought live rights would not be available for two or three years, and our whole strategy was going to be classic matches and original features. But, when COVID happened and the tours were disrupted, there were exhibitions popping up, and Tennis Channel started discussions with those exhibitions.
Tennis Channel International picked Germany for its initial app because tennis is so popular in the country.
The impact has been large. The service has shown more than 1,000 live matches and was the official streaming partner of the ATP 500 Hamburg European Open and even the DTB German Tennis Championships (which never had a media partner before) in December.
Those championships did incredibly well and even had stronger viewership in Germany than the Hamburg Open, which had global players, says Reif. It showed there was an opportunity to be a major focus with live tennis and original programming.
The idea behind Tennis Channel International, he notes, was to bring some cohesion to a sport that has different tours, four independently run Grand Slams, and rights deals that can sometimes make it hard for fans to find the information they want.
The central concept was to be the meeting place for tennis fans, a place to grow and tell the story of tennis in multiple ways, says Reif. The Tennis Channel is that place here in the U.S., but the rest of the world does not have that central meeting place for tennis.
Figuring out how to launch an OTT service on a global basis is a challenge for any organization, and Reif and the team decided to focus their efforts on countries that have strong tennis federations.
We looked to see where tennis is popular and where there are a lot of players who play at least one time a month. Those countries tend to have strong tennis federations, he explains. We also wanted to launch where SVOD services are popular, people are used to paying for streaming, and there is an infrastructure to support it.
Germany, whose Deutscher Tennis Bund (DTB) has 1.4 million members, was the initial focus, and a partnership was formed. A subscription service priced at approximately $2.75 per month was launched with Sportradar, which oversees the app.
Tennis Channel International began live-streaming matches during the coronavirus pandemic.
With the pay service up and running, Reif says, attention turned to the launch of a free ad-supported streaming-TV service via Samsung, with technology partner Amagi powering the look and feel of the service.
We use the FAST channel to build awareness for TCI, and then fans can migrate over to the subscription service, says Reif. It was launched on Samsung TV Plus in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and also in the UK in advance of launching the app this year.
FAST gives people a lean-back experience, and Reif notes that the 24/7 channel is fully programmed with the tennis fan in mind, with weekly and monthly themes.
Amagi allows us to put in dynamic graphics so it looks like a channel and not just a playlist, he says.
Along with 24/7 content, fans will also find hundreds of hours of VOD content. The production team dove into thousands of hours of content created for Tennis Channel to find the content that would best appeal to a global audience.
Now, when I go to our service, says Reif, there is thousands of hours of stuff to watch, which is incredible to me.
And something truly original is MatchCast, a live-scoring application that allows fans to follow the match live from nearly any device.
Something like that has never existed for tennis fans, Reif points out. Sportradar is our technology partner for that, allowing fans to watch every match in the world live and follow how a point and a match play out, as well as stats and data.
MatchCast is still in beta test, but Reif expects it to be a hit for fans who want to be able to follow any match at any tournament and at any time. Hard-core fans will want to follow different matches even if they can't watch it.
Obtaining original content from around the world is important, and a team of preditors (people who both produce and edit content) travel with the tour and are focused on tennis 365 days a year.
The MatchCast app allows fans to follow matches live from nearly any device.
They have access to footage and interviews to tell the story of tennis, and, at the end of the day, that is the goal, he says. We have features on players, human-interest stories, and access to anything that was created for the linear channel.
Speaking of the linear channel, Tennis Channel is moving to a new production facility in Los Angeles, where it will have multiple sets and sound stages that could play a big role moving forward.
We will be able to create global and also local content as we can keep the lights and the cameras on and shoot German or French versions of shows, notes Reif. As we grow, we will see more opportunities to take a global service and localize it. It will become more impressive for the tennis fan.
Plans for this year include a launch in both the UK and Australia, keeping the service on a positive trajectory despite tumultuous times.
We're happy with how much we have accomplished in a crazy time as we launched a subscription service, a 24/7
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Grass Valley today announced that Australian News Channel (ANC), operator of Sky News Australia, has deployed Grass Valley AMPP to transform its newsroom produc...
02/06/2026
Studio Technologies, a leading manufacturer of high-quality audio, video, and fiber-optic solutions, announces its new Model 385 Mic/Intercom Beltpack. The Mode...
02/06/2026
The Riedel Group today announced the appointment of Gudrun Scharler as CEO of Riedel Networks. She succeeds Michael Martens, who has led Riedel Networks since 2...
02/06/2026
More signals, higher quality, and outstanding ingest and streaming flexibility deliver professional results in a small, all-in-one footprint...
02/06/2026
farmerswife will be featured on the Modena Media & Entertainment stand at this year's Mediatech Africa 2026, giving visitors an opportunity to explore the l...
02/06/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17 19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
June sees Ireland's cultural calendar in full bloom, as RT Supporting the Arts showcases a vibrant and wide-ranging programme spanning music, theatre, visu...
02/06/2026
After The Traitors Ireland launched in 2025, Irish audiences proved to have a taste for the global hit reality show. This Bank Holiday Monday fans can indulge e...
01/06/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
01/06/2026
Designed to solve a common problem in broadcasting, the automated workflow detects, identifies, removes, and documents copyrighted music
AudioShake has introdu...
01/06/2026
The sports-analytics company combines its data with proprietary AI to help leagu...
01/06/2026
Category line-up & sponsors announced
Photo: Paul Clarke
The Production Music Awards (PMA) have announced that submissions are now officially open ahead of...
01/06/2026
New hybrid sample/synthesis instrument revealed
Excite Audio have just released the latest instalment in their Evolve series, which has been developed in co...
01/06/2026
Latest TONEX expansion captures three rare vintage amps
The newest addition to IK Multimedia's ever-growing TONEX line-up introduces a set of three incr...
01/06/2026
Musically intelligent soft synth gets upgraded
Scaler Music will be probably be best known to many for their music theory tools, but their product range al...
01/06/2026
SBS confirms its broadcast sponsors for FIFA World Cup 2026
1 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has secured Hyundai, Hisense, Macca's, Rexona, bet365, Com...
01/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz Satellite Industry Days 2026 guided by the motto From Earth to ...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Marshall Electronics is showcasing a comprehensive lineup of next-generation POV cameras, purpose-built to power today's connected AV environments, at InfoC...
01/06/2026
Adobe Announces Concept to Vector
Deepa Subramaniam June 1, 2026
0 Comments
One of the biggest frustrations we hear from designers is how difficult it...
01/06/2026
Vampire Feature Night Patrol Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton June 1, 2026
0 Comments
Colorist shapes dark, gritty tone for horror thri...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Luxembourg, June 1, 2026 - SES, a leading space solutions company, and Viva, Mexico's ultra low-cost airline, launched fast and reliable multi-orbit satelli...
01/06/2026
Agentic AI is getting physical.
At COMPUTEX on Tuesday, NVIDIA announced NVIDIA JetPack 7.2 and NVIDIA NemoClaw support on NVIDIA Jetson.
JetPack 7.2 brings a...
01/06/2026
Financial institutions have spent years building AI: fraud models, credit models...
01/06/2026
Mardi 2 juin 14h00
FilmLight (ARRI), 10 rue Ren Boulanger, 75010 Paris
Rejoignez-nous pour d couvrir comment FLAPI (l'API FilmLight) peut transformer e...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
31/05/2026
Olivia P rez-Collellmir to Premiere Original Work at Gaud Centennial in Barcelona The Berklee graduate and faculty member will debut her choral symphony with...
31/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Wins 15 Awards at the Canadian Screen Awards - See Pho...
31/05/2026
Taiwan is home to more than 500 NVIDIA ecosystem partners. More than 1 million N...
31/05/2026
As factories move from isolated automation to plant-wide intelligence, manufacturers need AI systems that can connect live machine signals, quality systems, wor...
31/05/2026
The NVIDIA AI Cloud ecosystem is accelerating the global buildout of AI factory infrastructure. Partners are expanding capacity to meet growing demand from ente...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
Tennis Channel International Responds to Pandemic With Live Programming The OTT service has streamed more than 1,000 matches since its launch in May By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
