Coda

New York — Now, there apparently will be two grand slam tennis networks.

The United States Tennis Association is expected to announce today that it has signed multiyear rights deals with ESPN and Tennis Channel to televise the U.S. Open tennis championships, beginning next year.

Sources close to the negotiations indicate that ESPN2 will provide some 100 live hours of coverage from the sport’s final major, while Tennis, in which the USTA holds a minority stake, will air some 60 hours, via pacts that extend from 2009-2014.

In conjunction with CBS, which last year struck a new five-year, $145 million deal through 2011 that superseded an extant contract, there could be up to 200 hour live hours of Open coverage from the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Queens — the most for any tennis event worldwide. USA Network will end its 25-year run as the Open’s cable carrier at the conclusion of this year’s event.

With the USTA deal, both ESPN2, which has long been using the “grand slam network” sobriquet, and Tennis will be able to serve up that moniker. ESPN2 regained access to the French Open via an alliance with Tennis, through which the sports giant afforded the dedicated racquet service match coverage rights to the Australian Open. Tennis inked a Wimbledon deal last summer, while ESPN2 recently renewed a rights extension with the All-England Club.

Under the new deal, ESPN2, will serve up some 100 live hours, including weekday afternoons and weeknight primetime broadcasts. ESPN has also secured a host of digital and mobile rights. Tennis will have more than 60 live hours, including primetime action on Saturday and Sunday night of Labor Day weekend, plus 75 first-run hours of news and highlight programming. It also has some digital rights.

— Mike Reynolds

Washington — Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin indicated last Thursday he won’t attempt to adopt rules that could help the NFL Network prevail in its carriage dispute with Comcast.

“I had proposed that the [FCC] change some of its rules for any kind of complaints about carriage that … [ended up being filed],” Martin said. “But the [FCC] did not change those rules in the past, so [the NFL complaint] will be filed under the old processes and the commission will follow them like any other complaint.”

Last fall, Martin advocated rules that would send carriage disputes between a cable operator and a programmer to compulsory arbitration. At one point, he was interested in putting matters in the hands of an administrative law judge.

Last Tuesday, the NFL Network filed a complaint at the FCC that accused Comcast of discriminating against the league-owned sports channel in violation of equal treatment requirements in federal law (see Rules, page 34).

“The commission will end up reviewing that complaint as we do any that anybody files,” Martin said.

— Ted Hearn

New York — MTV Networks chairman and CEO Judy McGrath kicked things off at last week’s upfront presentation to advertisers by talking about “ROI,” as in “return on innovation” — the value for marketers in the content provider’s reinvention of how audiences experience content on every screen.

“MTV Networks is a creative engine, and today there are literally no borders, no boundaries for creativity,” said McGrath.

MTVN president of U.S. ad sales Hank Close continued the “no borders” mantra, unveiling the company’s MSE or “Multi-Screen Engagement” case study, conducted around MTV’s reality series The Hills.

Among the MSE findings: 50% of viewers who watch only the TV show report a strong emotional connection to The Hills; but 96% of viewers who watch it on-air, go online for more information, have an avatar in the “Virtual Hills” virtual world and create their own content online around the show report a strong connection.

Close said the study showed “that multiplatform media campaigns perform at double to triple the effectiveness of a single media platform.”

— Mike Reynolds

Louisville, Colo. — CableLabs announced last Friday it has certified six “wideband” DOCSIS 3.0 cable modems — the first consumer premises gear approved for the specification that can deliver 100 Megabits per second or higher downloads — as well as three more headend systems. CableLabs granted certification status for DOCSIS 3.0 cable modems to Ambit, Arris, Cisco Systems, Motorola for two modems, and SMC Networks.

“We have now achieved successful certification testing for a system of very high-speed cable data products,” Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, who’s also chairman of CableLabs, said in a prepared statement. “This is a great accomplishment, ensuring that cable customers will continue to have access to the fastest Internet service available, along with access to more advanced-service offerings.”

The consortium also awarded “full” qualification status for cable modem termination systems (CMTSs) to Casa Systems for two devices — representing the first headend gear to complete compliance with all requirements of the DOCSIS 3.0 spec.

Motorola’s CMTS received the lowest-level bronze qualification, which indicates it supports basic features of DOCSIS 3.0, including downstream channel bonding.

— Todd Spangler

Los Angeles — Jamie Roberts, currently GSN’s senior vice president of programming, plans to open a Los Angeles-based independent production firm focusing on cross-platform programming for the global market. Roberts will remain in his current capacity as GSN searches for his successor.

“I’ve been itching to get back to producing and have been thinking about making the switch for some time,” Roberts said.

“We are excited about a continuing relationship with Jamie,” David Goldhill, CEO of GSN said. “I expect that, working with a new head of programming, Jamie will continue to help broaden the definition and audience appeal of game-centric programming at GSN.”