The Tennis Channel, Sinclair’s dedicated pay-TV service, has become the fastest-growing television network in the US, according to the industry analyst Nielsen.

Reaching more than 61 million domestic subscriptions, the channel has shown the greatest distribution growth of any pay-TV network, with the Nielsen Television Index (NTI) recording an influx of 18 million new customers nationwide during the past two years.

In the build-up to this month’s Australian Open and its 12th year of coverage, the Tennis Channel added 5.1 million home subscriptions during December alone, and was one of just 13 cable channels that gained subscribers, while 118 experienced declines in the number of homes they reach.

The channel also offered more live coverage than any single-sport network in 2018, according to Nielsen. It broadcast 2,315 hours of matches and will add a further 400 hours of live competition in 2019, as part of its year-round rights agreement with the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), the women's professional tennis tour.

The WTA deal is also symbiotic of gender balance. Subscribers to the Tennis Channel include 50 per cent of men and women, according to Nielsen’s research – while seven in 10 subscribers of sports networks, on average, are said to be male.

Since partnering with Nielsen in January 2017, the Tennis Channel has added 17.7 million traditional pay-TV and streaming customers across 61.2 million households.

The network's Tennis Channel Plus digital streaming service also saw gains and throughout the past year, with subscriptions growing by 25 per cent, and recorded a 51-per-cent renewal rate.

‘This 41 per cent increase in multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) and virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs) during the past two years goes against the grain of a media landscape with many programmers fighting to combat subscriber loss,’ said Nielsen in its report.