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Samsung TV Plus Signs Exclusive Deal With Tennis Channel

Samsung has signed an exclusive content deal with Tennis Channel in the US, to carry a new streaming channel on its Samsung TV Plus platform.

T2 will deliver 24/7 live tennis from major tournaments around the world, and will initially launch in the US only.

Samsung is the world’s largest connected TV business, with a 33 per cent market share of smart TVs sold in America between 2017 and 2020. Samsung TV Plus reaches between 25-30 million American homes.

This move points to Samsung’s increasing focus on content distribution, via its free ad-supported streaming TV service.

“As we see cord-cutting taking ahold of the entire industry, we believe Samsung becomes the next version television,” Takashi Nakano, the senior director of business development and content acquisition for Samsung TV Plus, told Variety.

“The next phase for us is this FAST evolution. This is distinctly broadcast (airing live) but it’s also over-the-top and can have dynamic advertising. This is a good way to deliver users the content they want.”

Interestingly, Samsung is yet to paid license fees for content, instead adopting an ad-revenue sharing model. This is the model that Tennis Channel has agreed to, and it makes sense, given the tech giant’s dominance in American homes.

As Variety explains, this move will help Tennis Channel’s parent company Sinclair derive more profits from expensive tournament rights.

“There are always multiple overlapping events going on” Tennis Channel chief Ken Solomon told Variety.

“We can strip out at any given moment one match of the 10, 20 or 30 going on simultaneously and put it on this platform. We can make this an always-live linear channel without disturbing anything we were already doing in linear and streaming.”

T2 debuts this week with the BNP Parabis Open tournament, which starts on March 10.



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