Neulion Serves Up New Tennis Channel Everywhere Experience

Tennis Channel has expanded its relationship with Neulion to create and deliver an Apple TV experience. Tennis Channel joins the ranks of other major sports leagues on Apple TV — NHL, NBA, MLS, UFC — in giving viewers live streaming designed and delivered by NeuLion.

As the latest addition, the Tennis Channel Everywhere experience on Apple TV enables viewers to access both the 24/7 linear broadcast channel and the digital subscription service, Tennis Channel Plus with additional live court streaming not available on the linear channel. Tennis Channel Plus, powered by NeuLion, gives viewers access to more than 450 live matches from more than 40 tournaments worldwide, including the Australian Open and French Open, across PCs, smartphones, tablets, and now Apple TV.

Connected devices are playing an increasingly important role in longer fan engagement and live sports viewing as seen across NeuLion’s many sports customers. In fact, many sports networks powered by NeuLion are reporting that a significant percentage of their live–game-viewing traffic is now through connected devices like Apple TV, Roku, and game consoles.

Many factors have led to this trend, notably high-quality video delivery, seamless integration between devices, and multiple interactive features within the NeuLion sports experiences. NeuLion delivers higher bitrates on connected devices, topping out at 6 Mbps and 60 frames per second on devices like Xbox One. Additionally, with one profile and a single sign-on, viewers are able to sign up online and carry those entitlements and purchases across to their other connected devices. These factors are helping to drive adoption of connected devices for high-quality live sports viewing.

“Launching on Apple TV is an important milestone for us,” says Adam Ware, SVP/head of digital, Tennis Channel. “NeuLion has given us the ability to take our content to multiple screen devices, and now we have given our dedicated fan base a big-screen experience with the most tennis coverage on TV all in one place, for the ultimate fan experience.”

“Connected devices are becoming more and more valuable as a means of reaching sports fans,” adds Chris Wagner, EVP, NeuLion. “Having access to live sports on the big screen and seamlessly being able to watch across multiple devices is a viewer must today. NeuLion has enabled this viewer experience for more sports leagues, teams, and networks than any other provider.”