The USTA and Tennis Channel announced an agreement to partner on the construction and operation of a permanent broadcast facility at the USTA National Campus in Orlando in order to produce live coverage of USTA professional, collegiate, adult and junior-level events on a year-round basis.
The agreement also grants Tennis Channel the rights to distribute a number of USTA events played in other locations. The USTA National Campus serves as the national training center for elite American professional and junior players. As part of the partnership, which runs through 2022, Tennis Channel will air matches and additional programming from USTA Pro Circuit tournaments, College MatchDays and USTA League, and wheelchair and junior national championships on linear television, a number of which will take place at the USTA National Campus.
“The USTA National Campus was built with the vision that it would be a stage for fans and players alike to engage with many levels of our sport in new and traditional ways,” said Gordon Smith, USTA executive director and CEO. “This partnership with Tennis Channel gives us new, high-quality content with which to reach a wider audience and give fans unique ways to interact with the sport.”
To assist in production, Tennis Channel is partnering with Full Sail University in Winter Park, Fla., to oversee a student-run production model in support of events and year-round reporting from the USTA National Campus. A rotating group of students will work in a variety of areas, giving them a unique hands-on experience in event broadcasting and production.
“We’re excited about this evolution in the Tennis Channel-USTA partnership, and the countless opportunities the national campus provides for growing our sport with audiences of all ages,” said Tennis Channel President Ken Solomon. “Having this full-time production presence at Lake Nona is a breakthrough moment for tennis in covering these types of competitions regularly and showcasing the wealth of great tennis that exists throughout the country for the first time ever.”
Earlier this year Tennis Channel aired five College MatchDays between top NCAA Division I programs from the USTA National Campus, the first live college tennis series in Tennis Channel’s history. In addition, multiple USTA Pro Circuit and junior tennis matches were shown in 2018 on Tennis Channel. Tennis Channel will additionally have access to the USTA footage library, which includes archival US Open content, as well as select footage from US Open Series events.
For more info go to www.usta.com/news.
