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As Dave Scherer wrote last night, Sinclair Broadcasting has finally closed on it's deal to acquire The Tennis Network. This has been a story we've been following for months here on PWInsider.com, because it has a massive ripple effect for Ring of Honor and all of them positive.
The belief is that the Tennis Channel could eventually rebranded as The American Sports Network (ASN), the sports end of Sinclair that was launched in the summer of 2014. ASN has been picking up the rights fees to a number of different NCAA Division 1 college sports conferences and has been syndicating them to different markets that are under the Sinclair banner. Since Sinclair was at the point where they couldn't legally purchase more independent broadcast stations, the logical step was to find a cable network and by purchasing The Tennis Network, they can now add The Tennis Network programming to what they have built for ASN. Since Sinclair owns ROH, it's not a huge leap to assume that ROH material would also be under the ASN umbrella down the line.
Where and why this is important to Ring of Honor is this: For the first time since Turner Broadcasting sold WCW off in March 2001, a wrestling promotion can now be broadcast on a cable network that the promotion's owner itself 100% owns and controls. While Ring of Honor has had a good amount of clearances across the United States, if and when they debut, this will give them something they haven't had since their short run on Destination America - a cable home that across the board nationally, gives ROH fans one prime destination to watch the series. It also gives ROH audiences in major markets that don't carry Sinclair affiliates a place to watch ROH, potentially becoming invested and interested in ordering ROH PPVs, merchandise, etc.
It also creates a lot more possibility for Ring of Honor as a franchise for Sinclair. ROH COO Joe Koff has long discussed the possibility of ROH doing live specials for Sinclair Broadcasting, but given the amount of different affiliates and markets involved, it would be quite the undertaking. With Sinclair's purchase of the Tennis Network, now ROH could do "Clash of Champions" style specials there should ROH and Sinclair wish to go in that direction. Should ROH want to expand the series to two hours, it would be far easier to do so on a national cable network outlet vs. a number of syndicated markets where each station would now have to rearrange their own regionalized programming. If Sinclair decides to dig into the ROH archives and play older material, they can produce that for the cable network.
We've noted and written a number of times in the past that Ring of Honor was in a far better position when compared to most independent promotions, because they were getting paid to produce TV content for their owner. Now, ROH could be tapped to do the same for that same owner, only for a national cable audience - and on a channel that is cleared pretty much across the board on cable TV as the channel is carried on Time Warner, Comcast, Verizon Fios, AT&T UVerse, Cox Cable, The Dish Network and DirecTV.
None of these changes will happen overnight, but in time, the ripple effects of yesterday's purchase will cascade onto Ring of Honor...and it's going to leave ROH in a much better place.
Quick ROH Notes:
Expect ROH to announce Shinsuke Nakamura won't make their Anniversary event tomorrow. It's been obvious that was the case but there had been no official word from ROH.
We are told there are only about 50 tickets left for the 2/26 PPV in Las Vegas.
Added to the 2/6 TV Taping in Nashville, TN is Adam Cole vs. Matt Sydal.
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