Monday 24 April 2017
- Exclusive rights secured for fast-paced tennis tournament - the 2017 Tie Break Tens Series
- Coverage starts 6.30 pm 4 May, live from Madrid, on Dave
- Broadcaster Ore Oduba to host Dave's coverage
Today UKTV, Britain's biggest multichannel broadcaster, announced it has secured exclusive rights to the new, fast-paced ultra-competitive tennis format, Tie Break Tens, for its free-to-air entertainment channel, Dave. Tie Break Tens is a short format of tennis in which only tie-breaks are played. Each match is a first-to-ten point tie break. Every tournament awards a winner-take-all cheque after a single, four-hour session of super-charged high-pressure tennis.
Produced by Sunset+Vine for Dave, live coverage of the 2017 Tie Break Tens series starts with Madrid (Thursday 4 May) where, for the first time, both men's and women's events will take place, side-by-side, with a knockout format used.
The Mutua Charity Tie Break Tens features British No. 1 and current World No. 7 Jo Konta in the women's event.. She will be up against the French Open champion Garbine Muguruza, former World No.1 Maria Sharapova, 2012 Wimbledon runner-up and World No 8 Agnieszka Radwanska, World No. 5 Simona Halep, Olympic gold-medallist Monica Puig and big-hitting American Madison Keys.
For the men's title, the US Open champion and World No 3 Stan Wawrinka, World No.5 Kei Nishikori, Bulgarian star Grigor Dimitrov and Spanish trio David Ferrer, Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez will battle it out along with French flier Lucas Pouille. Both the men's and women's tournaments still have one more player each to announce. The 16 players will compete in 14 tie-break matches, with two tournaments, running in parallel, over the evening.
Tie Break Tens is ordered by director of commissioning Richard Watsham and Dave general manager Steve North. It will be executive produced by UKTV's Arch Dyson and Mike Brosnan for Sunset+Vine.
Richard Watsham, director of commissioning at UKTV, said,
I'm confident Sunset+Vine will capture the energy and speed of the Tie Break Tens event brilliantly with entire tournaments packed into four hours of live sports action. It's fantastic to have world class tennis in an ultra-competitive format with top players live on Dave."
Steve North, general manager for Dave, said,
The Tie Break Tens format is an excellent way to get shorter and faster matches giving a thrilling evening of tennis entertainment. It's looking to do for tennis what Twenty20 did for cricket with significant levels of prize money attracting the very best players."
Victoria Sinclair, of Tie Break Tens, said,
We are delighted to welcome Dave on-board as exclusive broadcaster of live Tie Break Tens in the UK. Tie Break Tens is a fast-paced, innovative short-format of tennis designed to give spectators and television viewers a fantastic night of intense competition and entertainment. Dave, an innovative, free-to-air channel is a perfect fit for us as we seek to reach as many sports fans as possible, as well as introducing tennis to a new audience. Our research has shown that Tie Break Tens is particularly appealing to a younger viewer, who appreciate the pace and pressure this format offers, and so we are confident our partnership will deliver just that."
Andrew Preece, Sunset+Vine's executive director, said,
Sunset+Vine is excited to produce Tie Break Tens - a uniquely intense pro tennis tournament decided in a single 'prime-time' night. . "The format offers fans the opportunity to see a full tournament in one session, and a host of stars battling it out on court." . There's no room for error with shorter 10 pt Tie-Break matches requiring the players to be at their best with every shot. Tie Break Tens delivers an attitude to the game never before seen in the sport and that's why we're excited to be partnering Dave to bring this event to the UK with a bold and innovative coverage. In Madrid, 16 of the sport's top stars will be courtside throughout watching and analysing their contemporaries, giving viewers an insight into the game never before seen in the sport. Fans of tennis will see their heroes in a thrilling new perspective ...those new to the sport will be gripped and entertained."
Last year in Vienna, Andy Murray reached the Tie Break Tens final, losing out to home-favourite Dominic Thiem, who took away a winner-take-all prize of $250,000. It was the second time that Murray had been denied at the final hurdle in Tie Break Tens. At the inaugural event in London, Murray lost out to young British player Kyle Edmund, who walked away with more money in one night than he had earned in the previous 12 months. In the following year, Edmund was one of the highest climbing players on the ATP World Tour, from outside the top 100 to 48.
Dave's social media via @davechannel on Twitter and the channel's Facebook and Snapchat feeds will provide second screen coverage with point by point commentary on the games, plus behind-the-scenes interviews. #TB10Madrid #TieBreakTens
Locations and dates: Madrid - 4th May 18.30-22:30 GMT
For more information please contact:
Justine Bower, Head of Consumer Communictions, UKTV
About Dave
Sky 111/246, Virgin 128/194, Freeview 12, BT & TalkTalk 12 On demand on Sky, Virgin and UKTV Play
Dave's had a haircut and shave in recent years as it grows from awkward teenager to fully-fledged commissioner of new and original shows. And it's not just comedy these days but entertainment and even some knock-out live sport. Hit UKTV Original commissions include BAFTA-nominated Taskmaster, Dave Gorman Modern Life is Goodish, Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled and Crackanory, all laden with the biggest names in British comedy. Dave enjoyed critical success with two series of Hoff the Record, an International Emmy award-winning mockumentary ensemble comedy led by the living legend David Hasselhoff.
As well as home-grown delights Dave also goes stateside, cherry-picking cult US Shows including the sharp-witted and sharp-suited Suits and much-loved Parks and Recreation along with Emmy-nominated The Last Man on Earth. This all contributed to Dave's award win at the 2016 Broadcast Digital Awards for Best Entertainment Channel.
Dave is the UK's most watched non-PSB channel broadcasting to over 27 million people per month, and viewers continue to enjoy the ludicrously addictive American Pickers and UK remake of Storage Hunters. The channel continues to grow its original commissioning slate with political show Unspun With Matt Forde, Red Dwarf XI, Dara O Briain's Go8Bit, fantasy comedy Zapped! and Celebrity Storage Hunters airing later this year.
About UKTV
UKTV is a commercial broadcaster reaching over 41m viewers every month.
The award-winning independent has eleven imaginative brands - UKTV Play, Dave, W, Gold, Alibi, Yesterday, Drama, Really, Home, Eden and Good Food. These include the two most popular non-PSB channels in the UK and account for nearly 10% of the British commercial TV market. The company's most recent financial results showed record-breaking year-end revenue of £344.8m and EBITDA of £91.3m. It invested £151.2m in programming and related launches last year, and is a significant investor in British creativity.
The network embraces technology to deliver inspired channels to audiences through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk, YouView, Freesat, Amazon Fire and UKTV Play, and distributes its highly valued original programmes to 200 territories.
Now celebrating over 20 years at the forefront of digital television, UKTV - an independent commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (SNI) - is proud to be the first British television broadcaster in The Sunday Times top 100 companies list.