Jim Courier And Jeff Blackburn On The New Direction Of Tennis Channel

When American tennis star Jim Courier was playing in the 1990s, his parents didn’t travel and couldn’t watch most of his matches. That’s all changed, as Tennis Channel has continued to evolve, now broadcasting or streaming 93% of all matches across the ATP and WTA tours.

The evolution continues. With Jeff Blackburn, a 25-year Amazon executive who helped launch Amazon Prime, taking over the Tennis Channel CEO role in 2025, and the likes of Courier and Lindsay Davenport anchoring the network’s talent base, Tennis Channel has a focused trajectory.

“If you look at my background, you get a sense of why I was hired and where we might be going,” Blackburn tells me. “I ran Prime Video for 12 years. The digital part of where we are headed is getting a lot of emphasis right now.”

Having content to broadcast matters, though. Courier tells me that Tennis Channel really has “punched up into the tennis space,” starting with the rights to the 1000 and 500 events, calling the channel the home to tennis outside the majors. “There has been a big evolution and a big investment,” Courier says. “For the tennis fan, it has been absolutely incredible.”

Add in the live app and website access and Courier says everyone has the chance to be their own producer, changing the experience by selecting matches, courts and even camera angles.

For Blackburn, he’s been a fan of tennis since playing in high school and his wife plays consistently, meaning he came in knowing “everything about” the channel. Based in Santa Monica, the station has three studios working constantly (there’s a fourth dedicated to pickleball) and has continued to grow, extending agreements with the Billie Jean King Cup, Davis Cup and WTA this year while adding more Challenger events to go with its ATP agreement that stretches into the next decade.

“We are an essential part of how the tours work. We cover all the matches, all the tournaments and stay close to the players every single week of the year,” Blackburn says. “We are incredibly important for [the WTA and ATP tours]

. No other organization can do what we do for them.”

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Tennis Channel wants to meet its fans, even at the majors. For the first time since 2019, Tennis Channel returned to the U.S. Open for a live show, broadcasting from outside of Arthur Ashe Stadium for two hours each morning before the start of play. “I think it is important for us to stay connected to our fans,” Courier says. “It is still important for us to have that voice. This is ESPN’s flagship tennis event, and we are glad they are here. I think we can work hand-in-hand to deliver fans straight to them.”

Blackburn agrees, saying he believed the channel needed to invest and be on site in 2025, bringing fans the latest from the tournament each morning. It’s all part of a new plan with the majors that includes a secondary package with some live tennis for Roland Garros. Blackburn sees a model in the future where they cover some of the early rounds and another network has a larger package, “a model we hope we can work out with the majors,” he says. “We are continuing conversations all the time.”

To deliver live content, Tennis Channel launched a new app in November 2024 and has TC2, a “rocket in terms of growth.” The FAST channel (free, ad-supported streaming television) remains a growth area for Tennis Channel, as does its Pickleball TV. With a mixture of the cable-based network, the digital streaming channels and the app, Blackburn says fans can view nearly any live event they want, especially with some much “great tennis going on.”

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Tennis Channel is also focused on getting closer to the players and their lives, telling the stories each day. Blackburn says a host of new projects are in the works, including one with Ayan Broomfield, Frances Tiafoe’s girlfriend and former NCAA double national champion, that started during the U.S. Open to provide “color around what’s happening in players’ lives” that gives fans a “look beyond the curtain.”

The fans looking for the biggest moments on the tours also have some of the highest-quality voices bringing them the info. Blackburn calls Courier and Davenport the “captains of the team,” but praise everyone in the booth and on the desk. “We have a really good team,” he says. “They are all quite invested in Tennis Channel.”

It’s Courier’s love of the sport that keeps him invested. “Coming to the courts and putting the headset on is a little like having a puzzle put in front of you and you have to solve it,” he says. “What do the fans not know that they should know? Who can they see in a different way? Every day is a different answer to the question.”

With 15 years of notes of past matches saved on his computer and access to Hawkeye to mine strategic tendencies of players in the past—and what has either worked or not—Courier says he’s able to research before a match to help tell stories of why a match is moving in a specific direction. “Our job is to help the fans feel more connected to the people playing,’ he says. “It is a 365-day-a-year job to keep up with all the player’s comings and goings. I love the sport. It is not work; it is pleasure.”

Staying connected to the sport also gives Courier a front-row seat to the big events and history being made. “I feel really lucky to be involved and come to the courts and put on a headset,” he says. “It is some of the most fun I have all year.”