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D and The Tennis Channel?

9K views 88 replies 25 participants last post by  Dolly 
#1 ·
O.K. I know that many of you think I'm :beatdeadhorse: about this topic. So I thought I might as well do my beating in a thread. That way those that aren't interested can just skip this thread. I saw a post in another Forum from a tennis fan that is currently at the tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California. The Tennis Channel has a booth at the tournament and this tennis fan has Directv. So the question came up when was TTC going to get picked up by D? The person at the booth said D was going to test TTC at the French Open in May and that TTC could be seen on D by this summer. Sounds great right :) However, TTC people have been saying for years that D is going to pick them up and so far no luck :( :raspberry I don't suppose anyone here would have any insider information on if this is actually going to happen or not? I keep reading things that get my hope up only to have it not be true :nono2:
 
#3 ·
cpemberton said:
No insider information, but I saw this rumour on two tennis forums. Apparently, the Tennis Channel execs were putting out the word at the Tennis Channel Open in Vegas. But this is just a rumour reporte by someone who was at the TC Open.
TTC people seem to like to put out the information at tennis tournaments that they are going to be picked up by D. But it never happens :( :mad: :nono2: :raspberry
 
#4 ·
Dolly said:
TTC people seem to like to put out the information at tennis tournaments that they are going to be picked up by D. But it never happens :( :mad: :nono2: :raspberry
Well I'm just hoping here. But it does seem unlikely that we would be forced to miss Roland Garros, one of the four majors. But ESPN doesn't care about tennis, so it's not impossible.
 
#6 ·
cpemberton said:
Well I'm just hoping here. But it does seem unlikely that we would be forced to miss Roland Garros, one of the four majors. But ESPN doesn't care about tennis, so it's not impossible.
ESPN2 has been carrying some tennis and I have been watching :sunsmile: The Tennis Channel and ESPN are going to split coverage of The French Open so you won't have to miss a major :) But the problem is ESPN doesn't show near as much tennis as it used to :( So it would be nice if D would get TTC. And TTC seems to think they are going to be picked up by D :rolleyes: But that isn't the impression I'm getting from D at all :mad: :(
 
#8 ·
Horsefan said:
I would love to see the Tennis Channel and Horseracing TV get added to the Sports Pack. At least I do get TVG. I would also like to see the Golf Channel added back to the sports pack. Makes no sense to me why it was deleted from there.
I think The Golf Channel was moved to the basic packages was because The Golf Channel is now showing all Thursday-Friday rounds of all PGA tournaments (except the majors) and even showed all 4 rounds of the first 2 or 3 events.

I'm not a tennis fan, but was surprised when I switched from cable to satellite that D* didn't carry TTC when lowly Mediacom did.
 
#9 ·
garn9173 said:
I think The Golf Channel was moved to the basic packages was because The Golf Channel is now showing all Thursday-Friday rounds of all PGA tournaments (except the majors) and even showed all 4 rounds of the first 2 or 3 events.

I'm not a tennis fan, but was surprised when I switched from cable to satellite that D* didn't carry TTC when lowly Mediacom did.
And that is why I'm so mad at D--every other carrier is picking up TTC :mad: So I can't figure out why D won't carry it :(
 
#10 ·
Dolly said:
And that is why I'm so mad at D--every other carrier is picking up TTC :mad: So I can't figure out why D won't carry it :(
From everything I see in the forums, not many providers are carrying the tennis channel. And it's quite true that ESPN has been reducing their coverage of tennis, so I also hope they pick up TTC. Even if TTC shares broadcasting with ESPN for Roland Garros, you just know it's going to be tape delayed up the creek. That is NOT going to be a good experience. Lastly, you can't go by any impression that DirecTV is giving you, because they almost never leak or give any indication of channel acquisitions until the channel is being broadcasted.
 
#11 ·
cpemberton said:
From everything I see in the forums, not many providers are carrying the tennis channel. And it's quite true that ESPN has been reducing their coverage of tennis, so I also hope they pick up TTC. Even if TTC shares broadcasting with ESPN for Roland Garros, you just know it's going to be tape delayed up the creek. That is NOT going to be a good experience. Lastly, you can't go by any impression that DirecTV is giving you, because they almost never leak or give any indication of channel acquisitions until the channel is being broadcasted.
It's been replaced by the "Paint Drying Channel"......
 
#15 ·
cpemberton said:
I'll take it as a niche channel. If it were in a sports pack, I would pay for it (ok, I would pay $10, not much more). But DirecTV doesn't even give that option. And I have a 2-year DirecTV contract, so I can't switch to Dish.
I would pay extra for The Anime Network and The Funimation channel. At least you can watch tennis on ESPN or Network Channels when the major tourneys are going on. Im not saying I dont want D* to pick up the Tennis Channel, but there are niche channels other than sports and I would like D* to look into them before adding yet another sports channel.
 
#16 ·
cpemberton said:
I'll take it as a niche channel. If it were in a sports pack, I would pay for it (ok, I would pay $10, not much more). But DirecTV doesn't even give that option. And I have a 2-year DirecTV contract, so I can't switch to Dish.
I was going to switch to DISH even if it did mean I would owe D some money and then DISH didn't show up :mad: :(
:raspberry I think that positioning of the channel may be at least part of what is holding any possible deal up. I would guess TTC wants to be on a regular package like The Golf Channel. But The Golf Channel started out as part of the Sports Pack so TTC needs to understand that they need to get on anywhere with D. I'm also wondering if price isn't a part of the problem also? Anyway there has to be a problem/problems somewhere because I have had many CSRs tell me that people have requested The Tennis Channel. In fact I have been told by some CSRs that they would like D to carry TTC, but all they can do is pass the request to the programming section :(
 
#17 ·
cpemberton said:
From everything I see in the forums, not many providers are carrying the tennis channel. And it's quite true that ESPN has been reducing their coverage of tennis, so I also hope they pick up TTC. Even if TTC shares broadcasting with ESPN for Roland Garros, you just know it's going to be tape delayed up the creek. That is NOT going to be a good experience. Lastly, you can't go by any impression that DirecTV is giving you, because they almost never leak or give any indication of channel acquisitions until the channel is being broadcasted.
Well believe it or not D* is having a bandwith problem.Once they get all their HD satellites up and running it should allow for more channel additions SD&HD.;)
 
#18 ·
Jhon69 said:
Well believe it or not D* is having a bandwith problem.Once they get all their HD satellites up and running it should allow for more channel additions SD&HD.;)
yeah, but I suspect TTC is nowhere near the top of their list:) I'm a rabid tennis fan, but I don't know anyone else who is. So I suspect that the demand for tennis is low. Of course, this is a vicious circle, the less tennis there is on tv, the less the demand will be. I just don't understand why ESPN fills up the hours with paintball, or whatever else they fill it up with. I only ever watch any of the ESPNs when there's tennis on, but I've surfed through them and they always have crazy stuff like cheerleading, paintball, poker which is fine. I just don't understand how there's a market for that but not for tennis. Ok, end of crazy tennis fan rant!
 
#19 ·
cpemberton said:
yeah, but I suspect TTC is nowhere near the top of their list:) I'm a rabid tennis fan, but I don't know anyone else who is. So I suspect that the demand for tennis is low. Of course, this is a vicious circle, the less tennis there is on tv, the less the demand will be. I just don't understand why ESPN fills up the hours with paintball, or whatever else they fill it up with. I only ever watch any of the ESPNs when there's tennis on, but I've surfed through them and they always have crazy stuff like cheerleading, paintball, poker which is fine. I just don't understand how there's a market for that but not for tennis. Ok, end of crazy tennis fan rant!
Well you now know another rabid tennis fan--ME :) And you are dead on about the "vicious circle" when it comes to tennis :( But TTC keeps insisting that D is going to pick them up while D keeps saying, "We don't carry The Tennis Channel and have no plans to do so". So there has to be a problem here somewhere :confused:
 
#20 ·
Dolly said:
But TTC keeps insisting that D is going to pick them up while D keeps saying, "We don't carry The Tennis Channel and have no plans to do so". So there has to be a problem here somewhere :confused:
This is no different then historical with DirecTV...
They rarely in it's history have pre-announced channels before they where soon to be launched.

ESPN2-HD was a near disaster, as it was nearly a year after it was "announced" before it was turned on.

Some of the most recent ones like Sleuth and Chiller... we found out just a few weeks before they where turned on line.

National Geographic HD and some of the other HD's are "bucking" the trend a bit with that rule...

But it is not uncommon for DirecTV to deny they are going to carry and are in negotiations up to it is a done deal and activation date is set.
 
#21 ·
Earl Bonovich said:
This is no different then historical with DirecTV...
They rarely in it's history have pre-announced channels before they where soon to be launched.

ESPN2-HD was a near disaster, as it was nearly a year after it was "announced" before it was turned on.

Some of the most recent ones like Sleuth and Chiller... we found out just a few weeks before they where turned on line.

National Geographic HD and some of the other HD's are "bucking" the trend a bit with that rule...

But it is not uncommon for DirecTV to deny they are going to carry and are in negotiations up to it is a done deal and activation date is set.
Thanks Earl :) And I hope that TTC's people are correct in what they are saying, however, they don't have a very good track record when it comes to truthful information on who is going to pick them up :( :mad:
 
#23 ·
Bugs Bunny said:
Funny thing is DIRECTV has three separate channels for live Cricket plus a non-live 24 hour channel dedicated to cricket! Granted you need the 95 dish to get them but still...
Exactly! I'm from the West Indies, but I can't imagine there's a very large audience for cricket in America. Let me see, who plays cricket test ... West Indies, UK, Pakistan, India, Australia ... I don;t know who else. It's not that many countries. But I've seen the prices for Cricket Ticket; it's mad expensive. It must be profitable for them somehow.
 
#24 ·
cpemberton said:
Exactly! I'm from the West Indies, but I can't imagine there's a very large audience for cricket in America. Let me see, who plays cricket test ... West Indies, UK, Pakistan, India, Australia ... I don;t know who else. It's not that many countries. But I've seen the prices for Cricket Ticket; it's mad expensive. It must be profitable for them somehow.
Apparently Cricket is a very big deal to a lot of the world. I was surprised by that fact :eek2: But I don't see it being a big deal in the U.S. I didn't even know there was a Cricket Tournament until D got involved :rolleyes:
 
#25 ·
There are lots of Cricket subscribers, considering that it is Cricket...I remember when I didn't even know that it was a sport!!
 
#26 ·
okietekkie said:
There are lots of Cricket subscribers, considering that it is Cricket...I remember when I didn't even know that it was a sport!!
:lol: The only way I knew it was a sport is because I have watched a lot of English shows that have made their way to the U.S. And at times cricket would figure into those shows.
But then that gave me the idea it was an English sport when really it is played in a lot of countries :eek2:
 
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