News

*LOS ANGELES, Sept. 16, 2009 – *Tennis Channel, the only 24-hour, television-based multimedia destination dedicated to both the professional sport and tennis lifestyle, will make its Court Report news segments part of its nightly programming schedule beginning this Thursday, Sept. 17. Originally a special feature of the network’s major-tournament coverage, the one-minute hourly tennis update will now appear regularly on the network each evening and morning throughout the year. The move marks Tennis Channel’s continued transition towards providing its on-air and online audiences with regularly updated tennis news content.

Tennis Channel will produce four Court Report segments per day Thursday through Monday, which will appear at the top of the hour just before 7 p.m., 8 p.m., 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., (ET) respectively. The 10 p.m. segment will run each hour through the night and following morning before concluding at noon. An additional eight Court Report segments will be created each week to run on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, slotted into the same hourly schedule beginning at 7 p.m. These reports will be more evergreen in nature.

Each one-minute report will be followed by a 30-second commercial spot and five-second network ID before the start of the hour’s regular programming.

Court Report first appeared on Tennis Channel during the 2009 French Open, and returned for this summer’s Wimbledon and US Open coverage. As with Grand Slam events, the news segment will be produced in the network’s Los Angeles-area studio and bring viewers a brief update on the latest happenings in the sport.

“This marks a watershed moment for Tennis Channel; a move toward providing regularly updated news to viewers who’ve come to rely on the network as their source of information on everything that takes place in this sport,” said Laura Hockridge, vice president, original programming. “The feedback we received from both viewers and sponsors during the Grand Slam Court Reports this summer was overwhelming. We’re excited to launch these segments now and to progress toward establishing a longer-form nightly tennis news desk that can cover not just professional competition, but also high school, college, juniors, seniors, recreational and the many other aspects of the tennis lifestyle.”

Court Report will be anchored in turns by the three newest members of Tennis Channel’s on-air team: Cari Champion, Arlene Santana and Angela Sun. In Champion’s broadcast career she has reported on professional tennis, golf and Major League Baseball’s 2003 World Series champion Florida Marlins. Santana has worked as a host of numerous programs, including On The Up! For SITV Network, the GM Style Fashion show next to NASCAR star Jeff Gordon for Bader TV, and syndicated music and entertainment show LATV Live. Sun’s career has included work for ESPN2, Fox Sports Net and MTV News, where she has covered volleyball, extreme sports, surfing, summer and winter “X Games,” among other events. The French Open, Wimbledon and US Open versions of Court Report are hosted by former ESPN, CBS and ABC sportscaster and current EXTRA reporter Jill Arrington.

Segments of Court Report will appear on Tennis Channel’s web site, www.tennischannel.com, on the video page. Examples from this summer’s Court Report can be found at this link: http://www.tennis-channel.tv/tennis/console.jsp?catid=23&id=451.