Tennis Channel Taps Steve Disson For New Post

Tennis Channel has appointed longtime sports and entertainment marketing executive Steve Disson to the newly created position of head of new business development, sponsorships. He will be based in Washington, D.C., and the network’s New York office, and report directly to Allison Bodenmann, senior vice president, head of ad sales.

Disson will also work closely with Ken Solomon, president; Bill Simon, chief operating officer and chief financial officer; and Doug Martz, senior vice president, integrated partnerships.

Disson will use his experience in television sales, event marketing and sports sponsorship to generate innovative partnerships for Tennis Channel and its advertisers. Throughout his career he has negotiated more than $100 million in sponsorships on behalf of clients in the sports, arts and entertainment industries.

“Steve’s unique background and deep corporate-sponsor relationships make him the perfect addition at a time when Tennis Channel is the fastest-growing network in America,” said Solomon. “Our media brand is more visible than ever, with an almost doubled subscriber base this year and a wider reach through (parent company) Sinclair’s acquisition of Tennis magazine and Tennis.com this spring. We’re excited about Steve coming aboard and translating this increased awareness into new revenue opportunities.”

For nearly three decades Disson has been integral to the world of professional figure skating.

He most recently served as CEO of Disson Sports & Entertainment. In this role he created and produced numerous skating specials for network television. Before this he was CEO of Disson Skating and Consulting; Disson Furst & Partners; and D&F Group.

His firms created and produced skating events and developed sponsorship packages for a variety of corporate clients. Disson began his career at ProServ in 1976, where he headed all marketing and special events.