Tennis Channel Names Matt Graham SVP, Direct-To-Consumer And Streaming Business Development

Tennis Channel today appointed Matt Graham to the newly created position of senior vice president, direct-to-consumer and streaming business development. In this role, the veteran television-and-digital executive will spearhead the company’s strategy to make Tennis Channel’s television network available directly to customers via a new streaming platform, planned for 2024. Based in the channel’s Los Angeles-area headquarters, he will report to Bill Simon, executive vice president, COO and CFO. Graham will also work closely with President Ken Solomon in the development, launch and evolution of the DTC product.

Offering Tennis Channel to the tens of millions of households that do not subscribe to a pay TV provider has been a longstanding priority for the network, it said. The company expects that, under Graham’s leadership, next year anyone in the United States will be able to watch — a first for the sport’s 20-year-old on-air home.

Simon said: “Matt’s decades of experience in the worlds of traditional and evolving media make him unique to guide Tennis Channel’s availability in every American – and then who knows from there? He’s created successful streaming platforms, programmed them to grow their subscriber base and expanded them into new marketplaces. For years fans have been asking us if there’s a way for them to just buy Tennis Channel, and Matt’s here to make that happen.”

Graham joins Tennis Channel from AMC Networks, where he was general manager of its streaming platforms Acorn TV and Sundance Now. Under his watch, Acorn TV won numerous awards — including two Emmys — expanded to more than two-dozen countries and increased its audience 20-fold, becoming North America’s largest streamer specializing in premium British and international television.

Previously he spent six years at PBS Digital, where he founded and led PBS Digital Studios, a web-original programming division aimed at reaching young, diverse audiences through online video content. While there, Graham oversaw the development of more than 30 original digital series. Winning five Webby awards and a Mashie for best YouTube Brand channel, PBS Digital Studios has gone on to build an audience of more than 25 million subscribers and two billion views.

Graham began his career in advertising as a commercial editor, working for Fortune 500 clients such as Sprint, Chevron, Virgin and Electronic Arts before co-founding Umlaut Films, a San Francisco film editorial facility.

After receiving his Bachelor of English from the University of Virginia, Graham went on to earn his MBA from the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.