Sinclair Took Swings At Tennis Channel

By Jon Lafayette
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

Giant TV station owner Sinclair Broadcast Group tried to acquire the Tennis Channel and diversify in to the cable business, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

When Sinclair was in a retransmission dispute with Dish Network, Dish claimed that Sinclair was seeking to set the carriage fees for a cable network it might buy. It was unclear at the time which cable network Sinclair was seeking.

Tennis Channel is owned by a private equity firms including Apollo Global Management and Bain Capital Ventures. They have been considering selling the channel for a while, according to the WSJ report, but at $500 million, finding a buyer hasn’t been easy.

Dish and DirecTV also acquired stakes in Tennis Channel as part of early carriage deals.

Tennis Channel is in just 35 million homes. It could use the help of a bigger media company to boost its distribution.

It is also being overshadowed on cable by ESPN, which has been snapping up the rights to major tennis events, including the recently concluded U.S. Open.

Jon Lafayette
Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.