Tennis Channel growing, but still absent on Cablevision
I went to the U.S. Open today for the first time since 1995 and discovered someone lopped off the top of Louis Armstrong Stadium. Who knew?
It turns out big matches have moved to a building called Arthur Ashe Stadium.
While there I encountered Roslyn's own Darren Rovell of CNBC. He suggested I check out his story on taking a ride in a blimp over the Open. Here it is.
I also talked to Tennis Channel honchos about the station's offerings (all four Grand Slam events in 2009) and distribution (growing, but still no Cablevision).
Talks with Cablevision, which owns Newsday, are ongoing, but one holdup is a common one in these types of discussions: Tennis Channel wants to be on basic, not on a sports tier.
One of Tennis Channel's biggest problems is that, like the NFL Network, it is not owned by a big media or cable company, and thus lacks the leverage to gain wider distribution under America's convoluted pay TV system.
But that's a long, boring story for another day.
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Comments (2)
Isn't the Tennis Channel on the Verizon FIOS channel 303 as part of its sports package? How does that happen: allow one cable company to put it on a "premier tier" but not allow another company to do so? But as Jennifer Capriati said a few years ago when asked if she would watch the Tennis Channel: "Maybe if I was really bored".
Hey Neil, whenever I see that new Arthur Ashe stadium I think of how much of a waste it is to play 1 event a year there. The other stadium was perfectly fine. I guess we can all thank Mayor Dinkins for being a tennis fan and wasting taxpayers money on that waste of a building.