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ESPN has acquired all U.S. broadcast rights to Wimbledon, the network announced today, outbidding NBC, which has televised tennis’ highest-profile tournament for the past 43 years and the men’s and women’s finals for the past 32 years. The 12-year deal begins with next year’s event and all the coverage will be live — NBC has taken some heat in the past for tape-delaying key matches for American viewers. Matches will be shown on ESPN, ESPN2, the network’s streaming web service ESPN3 as well as on ABC, where selected coverage will be delayed. By 2023, the network said coverage will increase to more than 140 hours. “We are proud to have been a partner of The All England Club the past nine years and are thrilled to be given continuing responsibility for honoring Wimbledon’s rich tradition,” ESPN and ABC Sports president George Bodenheimer said. “Over the next 12 years, we’ll work closely together to move coverage of this great event forward with live coverage on television and using all the latest technologies and screens.” ESPN has had rights to early-round matches since 2003.
ESPN Snags TV Rights To Wimbledon
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This is fantastic. NBC’s coverage has always been shotty, with the delayed coverage and too frequent commercial breaks. ESPN’s coverage this year before NBC took over the coverage was ten times better than NBC. This is just great news for tennis fans!!
Excellent news !!!
I’m fine with Ted Robinson, Mary Carillo, and McEnroe for commentary, but otherwise NBC’s effort was sub-par.
Will this deal end DirecTV’s multi-channel coverage for the early rounds?
“Will this deal end DirecTV’s multi-channel coverage for the early rounds?”
Can’t see why it would. They have coverage of every major regardless of NBC’s involvement…including the Australian Open, which is all ESPN to begin with.
I see how this can increase their revenue, and widen their viewership, but as an avid watcher of ESPN, and as someone who is not a fan of Tennis, I feel it will drive away more loyal watchers, than it will bring in new.
In business school, they always stressed the importance keeping your current customers happy, because it is harder to get new customers than to keep the ones you have. And I feel the more Nascar, Tennis, and Golf they play for long periods of time on the air, the less likely I will go back to them for Baseball and Football updates.
@ Genevieve….I agree w/every word you said, except for describing NBCs coverage as “shotty”; I’d replace the vowel “o” w/the vowel “i” as that more aptly describes their coverage. I’ll be sad to loose Mac and Mary though.
Thank GOD this happened. NBC blew it this year not showing anything other than the finals live. NBC actually began their west coast coverage of the men’s semis this year by announcing the winner of one of the two matches!
Hopefully ESPN can steal Mary and Mac for commentary, but I am overjoyed that NBC will no longer be ruining Wimbledon for true fans.
@Adam, I’m an avid ESPN viewer too and I have just been made very happy. This is one more cable element that keeps me from cutting the cord.
NBC’s coverage has been criminal. Thank god they are losing their license. Could you imagine if the NFL or NBA playoffs were only broadcast on tape delay? Who would stand for that? The NBC Wimbledon coverage has been unwatchable. When NBC is showing a best of 5 set match on tape delay, they will never run over their broadcast window. For example, if the network is showing you the third or fourth set of a match near the end of the time slot, you know who wins the match because you know there isn’t a fourth of fifth set. If there’s a fourth or fifth set, the network will instead simply skip forward to it, so you don’t get to see the middle of the match. As a tennis fan, I’m not exaggerating when I say it feels like I’ve been the victim of a multi-decade crime.
Don’t forget that NBC just stops their broadcast in the middle of matches. This year there was no other way than using the internet to watch (not espn360).
The biggest assault was the second woman semi final that they did not bring at all until the evening. They show the first and than stop for 8 hours to bring the second one delayed. They really think we are stupid…
The problem is, they do that with every live sports coverage that comes from overseas. I am not looking forward to the Olympic games next year. it will be unwatchable…
Tennis? Why? If there was a pro sport in rougher shape than NASCAR and pro boxing, it’s pro tennis with a bunch of superstars that need 2 forms of picture ID to cash their giant checks.
So, I guess you don’t watch, huh? And, just like all the tv shows and films you don’t see, there must be no audience for the things you’re not interested in. You’ve got your finger right on the pulse, alright. Classy.
Thank God. ESPN will show more than Serena Venus, Sharapova and Andy ROddick. Showing tape delayed coverage of their matches while there is live tennis going on is insane. On mens semi finals day, NBC had rights to show Nadal-Murray but wouldn’t start their coverage before 12PM. Therefore if Nadal Murray got on before then, no-one in the US could show it. RIdiculous in this age.
I’ve never been impressed with Wimbledon coverage on NBC and ESPN and before that TNT.
The gold standard of US coverage was HBO. They showed everything live from the first matches of the day until when play was called at the end of the day. When it rained, they reached into their vault of old matches and educated the viewers by showing the classics of yesteryear. With no commercials and only a few fluff pieces between matches, it was pretty much solid tennis all day.
Can anyone tell me why HBO failed to renew the contract for weekday coverage despite the All England Club being pleased with it?
I was part of that HBO Wimbledon team for years. It was excellent, and smart, the way HBO has always done everything. But remember that we did not carry the mens semi and final or womens final, as NBC had those rights. We also tape delayed everything because of the time difference, which is what gave us the ability to edit so many courts and find the most compelling matches. Not to mention Billie Jean King and Arthur Ashe -the best of the best to do commentary!!! But HBO was not growing a sports brand, and the rights grew prohibitively expensive vs. the viewership. simple as that. We also carried the US Open for many years. Same problem.
I suppose I knew it was tape delayed on HBO, but forgive me for remembering with rose colored glasses a fond part of my youth. Coverage started right as I rolled out of bed and lasted into the early afternoon. I’d watch all day in the dark of my living room with the shades down.
Yeah, I knew about NBC’s rights. It’s too bad it became cost prohibitive for HBO. Jim Lampley and the people who were with him in the booth were the best and I’ll remember them always when it comes to tennis commentary.
Something needs to be done with the way ESPN is handling ABC Sports. This is just stupid by which you have major events going on and yet, ABC is airing garbage programming on the weekends when they can easily fill those gaps with sports. Ever since this stupid agreement between ESPN and ABC back on September 2006, the coverage on the ABC network has dwindled to a miniscule few events and that horrible ESPN Sports Saturday show needs to be CXLed for good. Give ABC Sports their identity back and enough of the ESPN garbage on ABC. Make it respectable once again and with their OWN graphics. ABC is a laughingstock when it comes to sports programming.
Agree with you wholeheartedly on the ABC/ESPN situation. This Wimbledon deal is good news for them, although modest good news at best. They completely blew the biggest get of the year, coverage of the Olypmics, yet again. That would have been awesome having all of the Olympic coverage on the ESPN networks. Now, I’m waiting to see how badly they are going to screw up their shot at getting more NFL games on the networks. And they need to do better at selecting which college games they air on Saturday nights. Last season most of the night games served-up on ABC were the crappy leftovers.