TELEVISION

Background

  • Wimbledon was televised for the first time in 1937, when matches were transmitted by the BBC from Centre Court for up to half an hour each day of the meeting.
  • In 1967, Wimbledon provided the first ever colour broadcast in Britain.More than 80 broadcast organisations are on site
  • Approximately 2,500 broadcasters work in the Broadcast Centre
  • Nine courts have live television coverage (seven after week one), more than any other Grand Slam
  • Host broadcaster BBC uses nearly 100 cameras around the grounds during The Championships
  • There are positions for 120 commentators on Centre Court alone

Broadcast Strategy

  • Fees paid by international broadcasters are vital since they help create the annual surplus that is then returned into British tennis at all levels by the Lawn Tennis Association.
  • As important to the All England Club is to carry Wimbledon to as large an audience as possible which is why, in most parts of the world, the Club aims to place at least part of The Championships on national, free-to-air television.
  • Broadcasters are approached on a country-by-country basis with agreements designed to satisfy both cable and satellite, and terrestrial broadcasters.

Host Broadcaster - BBC

  • The BBC is the host broadcaster, as well as the UK rights holder, acting for more than 40 other international networks in what has become the largest annual broadcast operation in the world.
  • The current contract (2010-14) is based on the principles which have endured since that first TV transmission in l937: the BBC’s respect for the prestige and pulling power of Wimbledon and the Club’s appreciation of the production effort and the audience which the BBC brings each year.

Television Coverage 2010

  • In 2010, 10,702 hours were broadcast  to 187 territories
  • The two markets with by far the largest audiences are the UK and USA with 204 million and 123 million viewing hours respectively in 2010. Coverage is aired on both NBC (terrestrial) and ESPN (cable/satellite), supplemented by 4hrs of primetime highlights on the Tennis Channel.
  • In Japan, The Championships are shown by the terrestrial partner NHK and WOWOW with doubles matches being available on Gaora. These three broadcasters delivered a combined total of 237 hours in 2010. Europe delivers the highest amount of coverage with 7,077 hours in 2010, a five per cent increase from 2009. In Spain, viewing hours increased by more than 300 per cent and audience reach was at a near record level of 11.38 million. In Russia, viewing increased by 40 per cent to 522 hours.
  • Africa and the Middle East saw another significant increase in coverage up 24 per cent from 2009 with close to 1,000 hours broadcast.

    Web and Mobile Coverage
    • Over 11.5 million unique users logged onto www.wimbledon.com during 2010 event.   
    • Total page views 330m. 
    • Average time on site of 81.84 minutes.
    • The Wimbledon iPhone ‘App’ was downloaded some 850,000 times.  

Contracted broadcasters for 2011

BROADCASTER TERRITORY

ADMC Middle East
ARQ Czech Republic
B92 Serbia
BBC UK
Canal+ France
Canwest Canada (Men's And Ladies' finals only)
C More Sweden, Finland, Norway
Ctv(Tsn) Canada (preliminary rounds only)
ESS Asia
ESPN United States
ESPNSur South America
Fiji Tv
Fox Australia
Gaora Japan
Go Multiplus Malta
Globosat Brazil
I.K.O (Sport Klub ) Balkans
Lumiere Tv Cyprus
Media Eye Turkey (Ntv)
MPI Romania
NBC United States
Nova Greece & Cyprus
Nhk Japan
NOS Netherlands
NTV Russia
Pragosport (Sport1 Channel) Hungary
Polsat Poland
RDS Canada (Finals Only)
Reuters Rtl(Clt Ufa) French Belgium
Seven Australia
Sky Deutschland Germany
SNTV Sogecable Spain
Sport1 Netherlands
Sports Channel Israel
Sport TV Portugal
SRG Switzerland
Supersport Albania & Kosovo
Supersport South Africa
TVNZ New Zealand
TG4 Republic Of Ireland
TV+ Bulgaria
TV2 Denmark
The Tennis Channel United States
VRT Dutch Belgium
VTM (VMMA) Belgium
Wowow Japan