Tennis Channel has a new ad sales doubles partner: Sony Pictures Television
The 24-hour sports and lifestyle service has named SPT as its exclusive ad sales representative for national inventory and direct response messaging.
Under the agreement, SPT, which also serves as sales rep for In Demand Networks’ high-definition service Mojo, will sell Tennis inventory to traditional national TV advertisers, freeing up the channel’s internal sales to pursue deals with endemic sponsors and look to secure integrated sponsorship packages.
The deal comes as Tennis has doubled reach to some 20 million homes; lifted its base of rights to 49 of the top 50 tournaments in tennis, including Grand Slam events, Wimbledon and the French and Australian Opens; and recently restructured its own ad sales structure.
Gary Herman who had been working as Scripps Networks senior vice president of advertising sales for emerging networks and syndicated properties, was recently named senior vice president of advertising sales for Tennis in New York, where he's charged with driving sales and monetizing Tennis content across all platforms, including on-air, Web, video on demand, broadband and wireless applications. Herman’s arrival has enabled senior vice president, ad sales Doug Martz to focus his attention on the service’s major charter clients and non-traditional opportunities from Los Angeles.
“Our partnership with Sony extends our sales footprint in the national ad sales marketplace and allows Tennis Channel to grow its core base of advertisers while developing a strong roster of endemic and non-traditional accounts,” said Herman in a statement. “The Sony sales management and team members are a terrific group of professionals – among the best media players in the business – and we’re thrilled to have them represent our network.”
