Sinclair Fires Tennis Channel CEO Over Work With Dr. Phil

Ken Solomon, the veteran CEO and chair of the Tennis Channel, is being let go by the cable channel’s parent company, Sinclair Inc., industry sources confirmed to Front Office Sports. It’s a major executive shake-up in the closing days of the US Open.

The departure, originally reported by The Wall Street Journal, stems from an apparent disagreement about Solomon’s role since last year as a board member and adviser of Merit Street Media, the company founded and led by television personality Dr. Phil McGraw. Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley is believed to have signed off on Solomon’s activity, but the WSJ said that the Merit work had grown more time-consuming.

The dismissal takes effect Monday.

Solomon had the Tennis Channel since early 2005 and was deeply intertwined with the outlet’s brand and operations. His stewardship had helped make the channel something of an outlier as many other corners of sports media experienced significant declines. The network—also including a robust streaming operation and Tennis.com—has been a solid, if somewhat unspectacular, presence with its single-sport format, generating $67 million in revenue in its most recent quarter, up 12% from the same period in 2023.

The executive had also been trying to lead a sale of the network, a development first reported by FOS in February. Those efforts have not yet yielded an agreement.

The Tennis Channel declined to comment. Sinclair and Merit Street Media did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Alex Schiffer contributed reporting.