Wimbledon Moves to ESPN Full-Time in 2012

Wimbledon signs a 12-year deal with ESPN

By Joshua Albarran

July 5, 2011 – Bristol, CT – it was announced on Tuesday that ESPN have acquired the exclusive United States television rights to The Championships, Wimbledon as part of a 12-year agreement with the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. Starting next year in 2012, all live matches will be seen on both ESPN2 and ESPN, while The ABC Television Network will broadcast a 3-hour highlight show on the "Middle Sunday" of the tournament, and a rebroadcast from both women’s and men’s finals on both Saturday and Sunday at 3:00pm ET/12:00pm PT.

NBC has been the U.S. broadcast home of Wimbledon since 1969, decided not to retain those rights following this year’s finals ends. Two months ago, NBC outbids ESPN and ABC for the NHL, and then a month later, the Olympics. Now that the Disney-owned sports network has regain its strategy against NBCUniversal’s new owner Comcast by taking the entire Wimbledon away from NBC under a new deal. ESPN is owned by The Walt Disney Company, which also owns ABC.

the announced was then featured on the 6 p.m. edition of SportsCenter with Jay Harris, and then on the 11 p.m. broadcast with Linda Cohn, reminder to sports fans that ESPN has got the entire Wimbledon under a new agreement.

ESPN2 also broadcast the U.S. Open with CBS Sports, and sharing the rights of both Australian Open and the French Open with The Tennis Channel.

Wimbledon is the latest major sports event move to cable from broadcast television when ESPN moved the Bowl Championship Series from Fox in 2010, while coverage of every NCAA March Madness tournament games on Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting networks with CBS starting in 2016.

ESPN will present Wimbledon on its multimedia array of platforms, including both ESPN and ESPN2 simultaneously the second Monday-Wednesday. This will allow for expanded coverage of the Round of 16 and live telecasts of all quarterfinals. ESPN will televise the semifinals and finals. ABC will broadcast a three-hour highlights show on the “middle Sunday” of the tournament, and will reair the finals on a same-day basis at 3 pm ET.

In addition, ESPN3.com will carry all live matches at least 750 hours by simulcast both ESPN and ESPN2’s broadcast of the Wimbledon, ESPN have aired almost 100 television hours since 2003 with another 650 hours on ESPN3.com will be extended starting next year with both semifinals and finals, and a extended 140 television hours on the ESPN/ABC networks.

"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. 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," said George Bodenheimer, president, ESPN Inc. and ABC Sports, and co-chairman, Disney Media Networks.

“We are delighted to be extending our partnership with ESPN, in a move which will consolidate our U.S. media rights under the auspices of a single partner. This new agreement will bring increased live coverage of The Championships and ensure that the huge international audience for Wimbledon can now enjoy all the drama and colour of the Fortnight through a sustained narrative delivered with clarity, continuity and consistency across a wide range of platforms,” said Ian Ritchie, Chief Executive of The All England Lawn Tennis Club.

“We are proud of our 43-year partnership with the All England Club, and while we would have liked to have continued our relationship, we were simply outbid,” said Comcast’s NBCUniversal on ending its long-time relationship with Wimbledon.

Currently, in addition to an already extensive TV schedule on ESPN, ESPN2 and The ABC Television Network, ESPN’s Wimbledon rights include live matches on ESPN3.com (with the semifinals and finals available on delay), ESPN Mobile TV, ESPN Interactive TV, the WatchESPNApp, ESPNNetworks.com and Spanish-language ESPN Deportes, as well as distribution to 30 million homes in Latin America via ESPN International and in Canada via TSN. In addition, ESPN.com has extensive reporting with news, analysis and video from Wimbledon, ESPN The Magazine previews the competition while ESPN Classic shows great matches from the past and ESPN 3D aired its first tennis at this year’s Championships, plus, live look-in updates and branded segments on SportsCenter and ESPNews.

Since 2009, ESPN has aired all four Grand Slam events, something no other U.S. network has ever done. ESPN has presented the Australian Open since 1984, the French Open since 2002 (plus 1986 – 1993), Wimbledon since 2003 and the US Open since 2009. ESPN debuted September 7, 1979, and the first tennis telecast was exactly one week later, September 14, a Davis Cup tie, Argentina at U.S. from Memphis with Cliff Drysdale on the call and John McEnroe playing.

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