Tennis Channel, a 24-hour multimedia platform devoted to professional tennis and the tennis lifestyle, has partnered with Verizon Digital Media Services to power the Tennis Channel app’s video delivery.
“As we grow Tennis Channel’s app, Verizon Digital Media Services lets us deliver the exceptional streaming experiences our users have come to expect,” Tennis Channel’s SVP, head of digital and business development, Adam Ware, said in a statement. “They’ve been flexible enough to integrate with our existing systems, with a 24-hour support team and Live Event Operations managed service that have helped us scale significantly.”
Here’s what you need to know:
-Tennis Channel’s app live streams tennis matches and tennis-related VOD content. Each year the app delivers more than 700 live matches and more than 1,500 VOD assets, according to the statement. At the French Open in May, Tennis Channel will for the first time have 16 simultaneous live streams – one for every court.
-Verizon will provide Tennis Channel with an operations team that manages pre-event preparations and day-of-show operations to supplement Tennis Channel’s operations and engineering team. Verizon’s stated goal is to “[relieve] broadcasters and rights holders of dealing with the hassle and complexities of directly managing live event OTT streaming and [help] expand operations requirements to cover more events.”
-To enable game highlights to be published as VOD assets, Verizon’s Uplynk Video Streaming service will integrate with Tennis Channel’s in-house scheduling and content management system.
-The companies announced the partnership today, but they collaborated to stream the California-based BNP Paribas Open earlier this month.
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SportTechie Takeaway:
A fellow tech/media giant is already streaming ATP tennis tournaments. Amazon announced last year that it obtained worldwide streaming rights for the Next Gen ATP Finals, an end-of season tournament for the world’s best 21-and-under players. Like the Verizon deal, the Amazon deal included VOD assets like documentary-style productions that track up-and-coming players. Amazon’s rights extend into 2018.
Amazon also has rights to stream all ATP Tour matches in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, including exclusive rights to all ATP World Tour Masters 1000s and twelve of each of the 500s and 250s. Note that the parties carved out Tennis TV, ATP’s direct to consumer streaming service, from the exclusivity provision.
Verizon and Amazon are no doubt aware that 30% of fans now stream sports to their phones or tablets and 80% have juggled multiple screens while consuming sports. The two titans have carved out stakes in the streaming tennis space. Verizon has done so by partnering with a content producer (Tennis Channel) to enhance content production and distribution via Verizon’s online content monetization service. Amazon is doing it by buying rights directly to the content and airing it on its own platforms simultaneously with ATP’s OTT platform, Tennis TV. We now have two distinct plays to watch unfold this year and next.
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