DIRECTV is serving up another full year of expanded, interactive coverage of Grand Slam tennis and golf beginning with the Australian Open in Melbourne. In partnership with Tennis Channel and ESPN, DIRECTV¹s Australian Open Experience will offer live coverage on fiveadditional HD court channels along with an interactive application throughout the tournament¹s first eight days. The first day of coverage begins Sunday, Jan. 18 at 7 p.m. and ends at 5 a.m. ET. For the remainder of the schedule, viewers should check the DIRECTV programming guide. Each day’s coverage typical begins at 7 p.m. or 9 p.m. ET depending on the day.
DIRECTV¹s exclusive six-in-one Mix channel (701) will offer new features:
· Dynamic Mix Layout will maximize the viewingexperience by enlarging each cell¹s screen size as matches conclude
· Twitter feed lets viewers get the latest social commentary for each match
· Ticker at the bottom of the Mix screen providing real-time scores, commentary and messages
· And broadband enabled features:
o Complete tournament draw for Men¹s, Women¹s and Mix Doubles
o Player headshots
Viewers of the Mix channel will also have access (by selecting the red key on the remote) to an interactive Menu of features providing a guide to the live match coverage, recent results, the complete draw, Twitter feed and player bios. The application is available on the network channel during its live coverage window and on the Mix and court channels, whenever the extra channels are available. The interactive app also has a new look and feel using DIRETCV¹s latest set-top-box technology. For more information visit www.directv.com/tennis
