Sinclair Broadcast Group‘s pay TV offering Tennis Channel, like all sports-focused audio and visual networks, found itself in a bind as all professional tennis tours are on hiatus due to the worldwide coronavirus containment effort.
The company’s solution? A daily three-hour program from a Los Angeles studio.
Tennis Channel on Monday (3/23) will introduce a daily, three-hour edition of Tennis Channel Live.
The programming will fill the Noon-3pm Eastern block and aims to serve as a central tennis news and conversation platform with updates from the sport’s leaders, social media interaction with players and fans, and other topical information during this unprecedented shutdown.
With a general talk-show format, Tennis Channel Live will explore a different theme each for the next five weeks – Greatest of All Time, History, Roland Garros (the French Open), Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
The channel will run encore editions each evening at 8pm Eastern, and again at 8pm Pacific, to help fill large gaps in programming caused by a lack of tournament coverage.
Tennis Channel Live will typically feature a pair of announcers or analysts in studio, with phone or video interviews from others on the network’s roster of on-air talent in order to comply with “social distancing” necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Next week sees Steve Weissman host the show with former player Prakash Amritraj along with daily contributions from Hall of Famer Lindsay Davenport and Grand Slam-winning coach Paul Annacone from outside the studio.
“Though the competition may be paused right now there’s important news and daily information from players, events and governing bodies around the globe rolling out literally all the time, and Tennis Channel remains the central place for fans to stay on top of it all – as well as for the sport’s innumerable stakeholders to reach them instantly as it unfolds,” said Tennis Channel President Ken Solomon. “This moment requires both live daily analysis and wisdom from our on-air team of Hall of Famers and experts at the highest levels of the sport, who deeply understand its inner workings and organizational leadership. Home-bound audiences will also need to be entertained more than ever, and as always Tennis Channel will be here as a much-needed respite.”
