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BNP Paribas Open Doubles Domestic Television Exposure
(March 8, 2010) Indian Wells will have a larger presence on the small screen.
The BNP Paribas Open will more than double its domestic television coverage for the 2010 event with over 120 hours of live HD programming scheduled, tournament director Steve Simon announced.
Television coverage kicks off on Friday night with a live telecast of the "Hit For Haiti" charity exhibition featuring Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, Justine Henin and Lindsay Davenport
The tournament, to be held March 8-21 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, will be televised for 34 hours on Fox Sports Net’s (FSN) 19 owned-and-operated regional networks that reach more than 85 million homes across the United States.
In addition, Tennis Channel will increase its coverage to nine days and 90 hours of live action, with 70 hours of encore coverage. The announcing team for FSN will feature three-time Grand Slam champion Lindsay Davenport, former ATP World Tour player Justin Gimelstob, and veteran tennis commentator Sam Gore. Tennis Channel will bring Hall of Famer Tracy Austin to the booth during women’s matches, alongside sportscaster Brett Haber and field reporter Cari Champion. ATP Media’s Jason Goodall, Doug Adler and Robbie Koenig will handle the network’s coverage of the men’s matches in Indian Wells, with the Emmy Award-winning Brian Webber providing off-camera hosting assistance.
"We are extremely excited that we have been able to increase the overall television coverage of the BNP Paribas Open," said Simon. "Our partnership with FSN, and expanded relationship with the Tennis Channel, will allow us to provide multi-court coverage and more action than ever before to our fans across the United States. We hope to continue expanding our coverage in years to come."
Coverage of the BNP Paribas Open on Tennis Channel will begin live on Friday, March 12 at 7:30 p.m. Pacific time with a special broadcast of the Hit For Haiti exhibition, presented by Oracle, that will feature 94 Grand Slam titles on the same court with Graf and Davenport taking on Navratilova and Henin, and Federer and Sampras playing Nadal and Agassi. It is anticipated that the evening will raise a minimum of $1 million for Haiti relief efforts. FSN will broadcast the exhibition on tape delay, and fans should check their local listings for the times.
In addition to the live broadcast, live web streaming will be available on bnpparibasopen.org, TennisTV.com, atpworldtour.com, sonyericssonwtatour.com, usta.com, tennis.com, espn360.com, and others. As a show of support, the broadcasters, satellite uplink providers and production teams of the event are picking up all of the production costs to ensure that the maximum amount of money can be generated for the fundraising effort.
FSN’S main draw coverage will begin at noon Pacific time on Monday, March 15 and continue through the duration of the tournament. The women’s and men’s singles finals will be live on Sunday, March 21 at noon and 2:00 p.m. Pacific time. Tennis Channel’s coverage of the main draw will begin on Saturday, March 13 at 11:00 a.m. PST and continue through the finals on Sunday, March 21.
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