
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...
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...
14/05/2026
Sweetwater and Airstream have announced a custom-built Dolby Atmos mobile recording studio inside an Airstream trailer, set to tour music festivals, schools, tr...
14/05/2026
The American Association of Professional Baseball (AAPB) has announced a new par...
14/05/2026
ESPN has announced plans to transform Santa Monica Beach into a broadcast hub du...
14/05/2026
Amagi has announced a significant update to Amagi CLOUDPORT, its cloud-based broadcast playout platform. The update includes 250-plus features shipped in FY25-2...
14/05/2026
Clear-Com will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N7005, June 17-19, Las Vegas Convention Center), introducing a new product that builds on Arcadia Central Station...
14/05/2026
Ikegami will exhibit at BroadcastAsia 2026 (Stand 5D3-1, Singapore Expo, May 20-22), introducing two new viewfinders alongside its existing camera, control, and...
14/05/2026
Grass Valley has announced that dB Broadcast has delivered new IP-based outside ...
14/05/2026
NAGRAVISION, a Kudelski Group company, has announced a partnership with the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) to launch Play Snooker,...
14/05/2026
Belden Inc. has announced a definitive agreement to acquire RUCKUS Networks from Vistance Networks for approximately $1.85 billion. The transaction has been app...
14/05/2026
NVIDIA has released the Content Localization Blueprint, a modular reference arch...
14/05/2026
Disney has announced that Disney will be the exclusive U.S. streaming home of the Banana Bowl, the Banana Ball league season championship, streaming live this ...
14/05/2026
Arkona technologies and technology partner manifold will demonstrate their production solutions on the Magna Systems and Engineering stand (Booth 5D1-1) at Broa...
14/05/2026
Haivision will host a webinar on Thursday, May 21 at 10 a.m. ET / 4 p.m. CET cov...
14/05/2026
The CW Network and ESPN have announced a sublicense broadcast agreement for The CW to televise ACC football and men's and women's college basketball gam...
14/05/2026
The agreement marks Scripps Sports' first NBA local rights deal...
14/05/2026
A new report from education-technology company Wiingy testing post-ChatGPT predictions against three years of real-world data has identified broadcasting as one...
14/05/2026
Global Citizen and FIFA have announced that Madonna, Shakira, and BTS will headl...
14/05/2026
LOS ANGELES, CA, May 14, 2026 - The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today the cohort selected for the 2026 Episodic Lab program, taking place at Dunaway ...
14/05/2026
At Spotify, we're focused on making every listening experience feel intentio...
14/05/2026
Spotify recently welcomed songwriters, artists, executives, and music students t...
14/05/2026
New articulations, ostinatos, Motion Scoring Articulation Sets & more
Sonuscore's flagship cinematic string library has just been treated to a significa...
14/05/2026
World-class studio opens on T rkiye's Aegean coast
P r Recording & Residence have announced their official opening, introducing a new world-class reside...
14/05/2026
Now supports channel layouts up to 9.1.6
Nugen Audio have just released an update for their AI-powered dialogue intelligibility and compliance tool. Set to ...
14/05/2026
New recordings & one-key chord tool
UVI have just announced the release of Orchestral Suite 2, a ground-up redesign of their all-in-one symphonic orchestra ...
14/05/2026
Two new arrivals & expanded factory content
Rob Papen's all-encompassing plug-in and virtual instrument collection has just been treated to another upda...
14/05/2026
Embed QR codes into DAW sessions
FSK Audio's latest plug-in doesn't process audio, but serves as an organisational tool that allows QR codes to be e...
14/05/2026
SBS Board appoints Jane Palfreyman Managing Director
13 May, 2026
Media releases
The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) Board of Directors is pleased to an...
14/05/2026
Transforming bold ideas into market-ready productions: Digital Originals returns
14 May, 2026
Media releases
SBS, NITV and Screen Australia have announced ...
14/05/2026
Australia Uncovered Returns to SBS with Bold New Season Featuring John Safran on...
14/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz transforms spectrum complexity into situational awareness and ef...
14/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz and Quantum Systems join forces to redefine EW and C-UAS-enabled...
14/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz showcases STANAG aligned ARDRONIS Counter UAS capability at NATO...
14/05/2026
Code of Silence has won the BAFTA for Best Drama Series at Sunday night's ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall.
The series, starring Rose Ayling-Ellis and w...
14/05/2026
Soldiers equipped with Falcon IV radios will soon gain a sense-and-protect capa...
14/05/2026
Artists concept of the L3Harris Next Gen RTG in flight configuration, designed to provide 250 watts of reliable power for decades-long missions in deep space....
14/05/2026
Vivid Broadcast was embracing remote production long before it became the industry norm. Now, with Calrec's True Control 2.0-enabled Argo M and Type R conso...
14/05/2026
Car ad spend rises sharply in March as more auto buyers turn to electric, hybrid...
14/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/05/2026
CueScript's CueiT 4.0 Wins Future's Best of Show Award, Presented at 2026 NAB Show by TV Tech
CueScript, a leading international developer of professio...
14/05/2026
Expert-Led Education Sessions and Development of Online Training Program Accelerate IPMX Adoption and Deployment
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) to...
14/05/2026
Klvr is launching in the United States with a professional-grade rechargeable battery solution that cuts costs and improves performance across live entertainmen...
14/05/2026
Shooting into the depths of Bedlam with URSA Cine 17K 65
Brie Clayton May 14, 2026
0 Comments
Indie feature film paired digital 65mm capture with a Bl...
14/05/2026
WeMakeColor expands with Baselight, becoming hybrid color facility
Caroline Shawley May 14, 2026
0 Comments
Boutique Mexican-based studio integrates B...
14/05/2026
Berklee's Summer in the City Returns with Free Concerts Throughout Boston Ar...
14/05/2026
Chelsey Green Named to Billboard's 2026 Women in Music List The Berklee professor and chair of the Recording Academy Board of Trustees joins other high-pr...