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Tennis Channel's Solomon: Will Reach 60 Million Homes (Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: That's a Bloomberg business flash. You're listening to taking stuff.
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  Speaker 1: We've got leads and pin Fox on bloom Bird Radio
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  Speaker 1: Live at sen Us Tennis Open Flushing Meadows, Corona Park,
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  Speaker 1: Queens And it would not be a trip to the
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  Speaker 1: Open for me and Bloomberg Radio if we did not
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  Speaker 1: sit down and talk with Ken Solomon, he CEO and
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  Speaker 1: chairman of the board for the Tennis channel based in
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  Speaker 1: Santa Monica. But he's a globetrotter and he's in New
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  Speaker 1: York today ringing the nastack. I might add, but a
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  Speaker 1: very you've done this before, you and Martina Navratalova, but
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  Speaker 1: this time it's a very special ringing for you, Mr Solomon.
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  Speaker 1: Why well, it was, as you know, Kathleen, we uh
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  Speaker 1: we had a merger with Sinclair Broadcasting Group earlier this year.
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  Speaker 1: We were purchased by them, a good friend and the
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  Speaker 1: largest independent broadcasting TV station group in the country, among
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  Speaker 1: other things, and so we are now not only a
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  Speaker 1: bell ringer, but we are a member of NASDAC And
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  Speaker 1: it was really fun to be up there and actually
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  Speaker 1: be part of the club, not just to be hoping
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  Speaker 1: to become part of the club. You know, you have
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  Speaker 1: such a long career in television. I would even list
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  Speaker 1: all the places you've for thank you, But you know,
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  Speaker 1: and I think a lot of people have been rooting
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  Speaker 1: for you because to say we're gonna start tennis channel, okay,
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  Speaker 1: and we're gonna make it work against ESPN, against CBS
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  Speaker 1: or other big networks grabbing the finals and stuff being
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  Speaker 1: purchased by Sinclair. What forty seven million households, you're aiming
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  Speaker 1: for sixty million at least? Well, actually that yes, you've
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  Speaker 1: been reading the press. We came out a couple of
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  Speaker 1: days ago. We're we're at forty seven actually about fifty
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  Speaker 1: right now, and um, we're we have already made deals
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  Speaker 1: that will take us to sixty. So within a short
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  Speaker 1: period of time, the quality of the network has finally
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  Speaker 1: come through and Sinclair's been able to maximize it and
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  Speaker 1: we're now we have we will be at sixty million
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  Speaker 1: homes by towards the beginning of next year, with a
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  Speaker 1: bullet heading north with more live pro sports than anybody
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  Speaker 1: else has on. So it's very, very exciting at a
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  Speaker 1: time when other networks are really experiencing distribution losses due
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  Speaker 1: to cord cutting, cord shaving, um, some have the blush
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  Speaker 1: has been off the rose and people have realized, wait
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  Speaker 1: a minute, I'm not getting the sport I thought I
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  Speaker 1: signed up for When you know here test Channel, obviously
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  Speaker 1: we have of the Tennis hours and uh, you know
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  Speaker 1: in the United States it's uh and not only on
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  Speaker 1: Tennis Channel but also in Tennis Channel Plus and on
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  Speaker 1: the on the digital. So it's really really exciting, and
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  Speaker 1: it's our moment to be going up while everybody else
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  Speaker 1: is kind of going down a little bit. So you
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  Speaker 1: and your team, what is the number one thing if
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  Speaker 1: you've had to pick all the things that you think
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  Speaker 1: made this success, helped you hang in there, grow the network,
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  Speaker 1: grow the audience, and now have this very important merger,
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  Speaker 1: you know, joining up with Saint Clair. And what's the
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  Speaker 1: number one thing on your Listzer and your to do
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  Speaker 1: list to keep this going. Well, there's a lot on
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  Speaker 1: the to do list. The thing that kept us going
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  Speaker 1: was we knew we had the goods. We knew that
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  Speaker 1: this sport with a dedicated platform was a better media
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  Speaker 1: solution than almost anything else out there. And this is
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  Speaker 1: an experiment. We're gonna see how big it stand back.
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  Speaker 1: We don't know how big this thing is gonna get.
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  Speaker 1: But on the to do list really is not only
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  Speaker 1: scaling domestically and starting to look towards international markets were
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  Speaker 1: being bagged by internationals to this. This logic works all
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  Speaker 1: around the world. We're going to be scaling our digital
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  Speaker 1: operations radically. Sinclair has a huge you know, they got
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  Speaker 1: a hundred eighty one television stations. Every one of those
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  Speaker 1: stations also has websites, their standalone websites. It's a technology
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  Speaker 1: based company as well. And so there is a very
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  Speaker 1: quick precipitous scaling um, capitalizing on the base that we've
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  Speaker 1: already laid, not only with social media, but obviously with
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  Speaker 1: with with complementary over the top. Our over the top
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  Speaker 1: is not a chord cutting solution or a chord replacement sorry,
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  Speaker 1: traditional replacement. It is complementary because there's so much great
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  Speaker 1: tennis out there all the time. Well, that's for sure.
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  Speaker 1: So I guess the question is, and how do you
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  Speaker 1: get people maybe who haven't played or don't watch so much,
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  Speaker 1: don't come the open to start watching. And I wonder
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  Speaker 1: part of the way you do that is if you
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  Speaker 1: make a documentary that brings people into the sport and
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  Speaker 1: how it's developed in a a very emotional way. Right,
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  Speaker 1: anytime you see something about the Cousiers or anything like that,
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  Speaker 1: it's a great on entry point for a lot of
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  Speaker 1: people tell us about this new documentary, Well, thank you,
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  Speaker 1: that's a perfect t up, and I think Hoosiers is
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  Speaker 1: a good metaphor. We are premiering this week m a
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  Speaker 1: new documentary that really has been many, many many years
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  Speaker 1: in the making called Barnstormers, The Birth of Pro Tennis,
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  Speaker 1: And the little known story is that tennis players had
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  Speaker 1: to make an incredibly painful choice all the way up
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  Speaker 1: until ninety seven that if they were to win. And
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  Speaker 1: Rod Labor told this story last night along with you
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  Speaker 1: know about he and Bobby Kramer, and Bob Kramer who
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  Speaker 1: really started this, and Bobby Riggs that and Lou Hode
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  Speaker 1: and Pato Gonzalez and Ken Rosewall. All of these guys
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  Speaker 1: would win majors, the championships which were not open, they
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  Speaker 1: were amateur according to status. And if you took one dollar,
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  Speaker 1: if you tried to make a living doing the thing
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  Speaker 1: that you loved, which was playing tennis, you were forbidden
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  Speaker 1: from playing. And so you had to make the very
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  Speaker 1: hard choice of if I just won the Grand Slam,
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  Speaker 1: and Rod, as Rod Labor did, if I want to
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  Speaker 1: keep playing tennis, I have to take a dollar. And
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  Speaker 1: if I take a dollar, I can no longer play
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  Speaker 1: here at Wimbledon. He thought he'd never play there again.
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  Speaker 1: And it took all the way until nineteen sixty seven
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  Speaker 1: for Wimbledon. Who really was the pay set to say, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to allow a pro match to be played,
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  Speaker 1: um after the traditional Wimbledon match, and if they sell
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  Speaker 1: out the stands, then we will create pro Open tennis. Um.
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  Speaker 1: It is a fascinating story. These guys would literally be
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  Speaker 1: in the back of cars going from city to the
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  Speaker 1: best players on the planet, lou Hode, Gonzalez, Rosewall, playing
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  Speaker 1: each other every single day on a canvas court stretched
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  Speaker 1: over ice in barns on wooden floors for not very
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  Speaker 1: much money. Jump in the jump in the station wagon,
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  Speaker 1: go to the next place. Um. Meanwhile, their counterparts who
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  Speaker 1: were amateurs but getting paid, probably in some way shape
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  Speaker 1: or formed by the the the international associations that back
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  Speaker 1: those amateur players, we're probably getting paid a fair amount
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  Speaker 1: of money. So it is a fabulous story and that
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  Speaker 1: is bringing new people into the into the sport for sure.
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  Speaker 1: Final question, do we have a new story evolving a
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  Speaker 1: long awaited story of American tennis players, particularly on the
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  Speaker 1: men's side, really stopping up in tennis. Jack Sock, nice
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  Speaker 1: wind today, he's great. You know, I don't know that
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  Speaker 1: this is all that new a tennis channel. If you
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  Speaker 1: watch every day, unfortunately now that we're on Basic almost
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  Speaker 1: everywhere Basic packages now or will be very soon, you're
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  Speaker 1: gonna see people like Stevie Johnson and Jack Sock and
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  Speaker 1: you know, Jack just you know, a phenomenal player beating Chillich.
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  Speaker 1: You you had Brian Harrison, you know, stepping up and
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  Speaker 1: beating Rounditch on the court right now. Stevie Johnson down
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  Speaker 1: two sets and five two and coming back and taking
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  Speaker 1: it every day. He's right. You can watch all this
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  Speaker 1: and so we what did your appetite for tennis? Tune
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  Speaker 1: into the Tennis Channel, Kenslomon, thanks so much. CEO and
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  Speaker 1: Chairman of the board of the Tennis Channel, Sam Langa,
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  Speaker 1: thank you. Charlie Wolmer, thank you. Reggie Bazil Backham World Headquarters,
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  Speaker 1: thank you. I'm Kathleen Hayes and this is Bloomberg coming
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  Speaker 1: up Bloomberg Law are legal expert June Garasso tackling the
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  Speaker 1: big legal questions of the day, from business and economics
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  Speaker 1: to finance. Coming off on Bloomberg Radio