I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU.
I have had the Tennis Channel for about 4 years now. How is it possible that things have become worse than they once were? The fact that two major U.S. tourneys were not covered is just the tip of the iceberg. By now one would think the powers that be at TTC would have devised some game plan for acquiring the rights to bigger and better tourneys. Instead, we get the 200th airing of No Strings- Tatiana Golivin followed by the 400th airing of The Other Side- Lleyton Hewitt. Are you kidding me??? Today is a great example of the crap that is TTC programming. Agassi v. some Chump from Houston. This is the fourth time this week I have caught a glimpse of this match.
Here is an idea for the "business gurus" at TTC. When there is no good tennis to be had, sell some paid programming time!!!! The Golf Channel has been doing this for years and continues to do so and they have elevated themselves to the premiere channel for golf outside of the weekend coverage. No one wants to watch Destination Tennis more than once, No strings with anybody more than three times, and nobody needs to see what is in Andre Pavel's bag...ever!!!!!!! Sell some air time at night and early in the morning when nothing is going on. Get some revenue and get some freakin tourney rights!! I am sure Vince from ChamWOW would love 10hrs of time per week. How about Ron Popeil????Anybody.
It has to change or no one is going to watch....
like i said before...
WILL SOMEONE PLEASE GET RID OF KEN SOLOMON???
bad business model going on at TTC. wtf??? and a major accomplishment was to sell the TTC Open to the ATP? betcha that's NOT going to help improve programming but stuff more $$ in SOLOMON'S pocket!
and by the way, BorisRuled, there ALWAYS good tennis somewhere in the USA. whether at the juniors or college level. aamof, TTC failed AGAIN to show a great semi between alize cornet and dominika cibulkova at the BL Championship. sadly ESPN just limits their broadcasts to better known players like MaSha and Davenport. anyways, cornet and cibulkova are both nice looking hotties; good for ratings???
and you DON'T need to spend a lot of $$$ to bring good tennis to tv. hell, when i lived in nyc, NY1, the local cable news channel for nyc started on a shoestring budget, with just a reporter and his/her camera man, on foot or out of a economy car, not a van! and there's no need to hire high priced commentators; there are so many decent wanna be's out there who would almost do it for free! besides, let the tennis do the talking.
again, dumb, dumb, dumb: we're talking of an isolated programming director at TTC and an inexperienced CEO. they are so stupid they don't know how to bargain for exclusive coverage and revenues, so they have to partner with VERSUS, who is probably pitching in for the sake of $$$, to show the FR vs USA davis cup matches.
but if there NO tennis, paid programming should be relevant to tennis. local cable channels offer production services to showcase local business their wares and services at a nominal cost. they can target local pro shops, teaching pros and clubs; hey, about getting the big wigs of tennis gear to showcase their upcoming products (for a fee???). prince, lotto, wilson, k-swiss ALL have promotional videos about their 2008 products. that's about a good 30 min of programming (including commercials and the occasional 'bag check') per vendor. hey Tennis Warehouse, wanna increase sales?
there's other good programming out there like the Koz, the Buzz, expand the classics.
someone at TTC will probably say, "yeah, we thought of that..." maybe they should get a motivational speaker to get their asses moving. hey anthony robbins, supposedly you helped agassi on his game. how about the hotshots at TTC???
ultimately, the problem is the man at the helm: KEN SOLOMON. damn, he doesn't know sports!
so everyone, please don't blame the channel. blame the idiot at the top!
can the guys at TTC monitoring these message boards PLEASE print this discussion and anonymously drop it on KEN SOLOMON'S desk??? you guys will be our heroes!!!
coolmaccool,
I agree with you 100%. There is always good tennis to be had in the US. One would think by now someone at TTC would have realized this and tapped into it. Easter Bowl was this past week, big duel matches in NCAA conference play. I hear you and I hope the donkeys at TTC hear you!
Yea, where is the TTC broadcasting of the professional tournaments? dismal? I hate to see other networks broadcast professional tennis tournaments.
They pick out their favorite matches and not what many true tennis fans want to see. They cut off programming in the middle or before trophy presentations to show us football or other stuff.
This is what's been happening here in Texas (we moved here in August). FSN, Fox, was supposed to broadcast minimal Indian Wells, and the local cable provider (Suddenlink) ditched it for baseball and basketball. Just didn't show it. The tournament websites indicated the network and program times, but the local programming did not show it.
I am still mad about the Indian Wells and Sony-Ericsson. I'm in process of dumping Suddenlink cable and going with the Dish Network. You may want to check out your local satellite providers. Dish has many FSN that were showing Indian Wells. I missed all of Indian Wells and I was so frustrated.
Let me tell you what CBS did here in West Texas country. '07 US Open broadcast during the Labor Day was entirely wiped out to show the MDA Telethon. Who cares to watch that out dated telethon? That would never have happened in other states? Anyway, I said I'm in Texas, and that explains the lack of interest in an amazingly popular classy international sport!!!
European coverage has us beat ten fold!!! That may be why they are doing so well in the sport; sparking interest in everyone from young and old.
Hopefully TTC will catch on, take over and show more, rather than repeating a lot of shows and older tournaments.
Hopefull in TX!
I agree, I like to watch good NCAA coverage as well!
Well technically I beleive they sliped away from ESPN & ESPN2, but in any case it was sinful the way Fox Sports / Comcast, covered the events in the Northeast i.e boston market. How did FOX get rights to these events?