One Big Visual Weekend In July

Michael Hedges July 10, 2013 Follow on Twitter

Sports rule media, plainly in evidence from last weekend’s parade of big events. Broadcasters typically pull out all the stops to attract viewers, investing in time, talent and technology. Pay-TV challenges free-to-air channels and all-sports channels proliferate. Players play, viewers watch and rights fees rise.

Wimbledon is considered the world’s biggest tennis tournament and, correspondingly, television is there. Momentum building through the week, aided perhaps by big names falling to challengers, culminated in the women’s finals Saturday as Marion Bartoli of France met Sabine Lisicki of Germany. Then Sunday the UK’s Andy Murray faced world number 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia. As with most televised sports events, viewers are drawn to local favorites.

The television audience was, well, spectacular. The women’s Wimbledon final was carried on pay-TV channels Canal+ in France and Sky Deutschland in Germany. Both claimed record audiences; 719,000 watched on Canal+ and 590,00 viewed on Sky Deutschland “not counting the pub gazers,” said Handelsblatt (July 8).

When Ms Lisicki advanced to the women’s final – a whopping audience assured - German public television network ARD appealed to Sky Deutschland for rights. Sorry, they said, no deal. Wimbledon rights for Sky Deutschland expired at the end of the Murray-Djokovic match. Ms Lisicki lost to Ms Bartoli.

“Tennis is not crucial for Sky,” said Bankhaus Metzler analyst Stefan Wimmer, quoted by Handelsblatt (July 8). “The great Boris (Becker) and Steffi (Graff) era is long gone. An average Bayern Munich (football) match attracts 300,000 subscribers on an average Saturday afternoon. Bundesliga rights are especially important, which the channel secured until the middle of 2017.”

The men’s Wimbledon final Sunday afternoon could not compete on German TV with the German Grand Prix. RTL broadcast the race to 5.36 million viewers and 40.9% market share, the lowest for the event in 20 years. Media watchers blamed the nice hot weather for keeping folks away from the tube.  German driver Sebastian Vettel won for Team Red Bull. Italian public channel RAI 2 reached 3.3 million viewers with the German Grand Prix even as the broadcast was shown delayed, moved to prime time, Italian race fans always loyal to Team Ferrari.

Truly spectacular was the UK television audience for the Murray-Djokovic final, peaking at 17.3 million viewers on BBC One, nearly 80% of all UK viewers. A shade over 3 million watched Ms Bartoli whip Ms Lisicki but that match, specifically its coverage, focused media watcher’s attention as commentator John Inverdale, normally on Radio 5 Live, opened his mouth and removed all doubt with an amazingly dim rant. Perhaps his next cameo will be live coverage of the Iditarod sled dog race in Alaska next summer.

Thereafter, the BBC was savaged for the “garden party” approach to its Wimbledon coverage, lots of attention to well-known fans in the stands and less for overall presentation. The Inverdale episode “revealed the BBC's ambivalence to Wimbledon,” noted the Guardian (July 8). “Is it a serious sporting event or a backdrop to the English summer season? The BBC hasn't really made up its mind.”  The BBC owns UK rights until 2017 and has broadcast from Wimbledon since 1937, a year after television came to the UK.

Sports broadcasts are notoriously ripe for technical experiments. The BBC and Canal+ showed this year’s Wimbledon semi-finals and finals in 3D. ” The BBC first broadcast the 2011 Wimbledon semis and finals in glorious 3D and continued the experiment through the opening ceremony of the London Olympics, watched by one and a half million. Shortly before, BBC’s 3D boss Kim Shillinglaw said the 3D TV would be taking “a good old pause,” in a statement (July 5). “When the recession ends…there may be more take up of sets.”

And sports events have long been considered ripe territory for the second screen. The Twitterati’s contribution during the Murray-Djokovic final was “historical,” noted Deloitte tech/media director Paul Lee, peaking at 120,000 tweets per minute. “While Twitter did really well, the big screen did far better. When it comes to a visual event, people turn to the largest screen available.”

See also in ftm Knowledge

The Games People Watch

Media and sports are a powerful combination. Together they capture huge audiences and considerable money. This ftm Knowledge file looks at the competition from football rights battles and cycling coverage with new media to the Olympic Games. 82 pages PDF (October 2012)

Order here

The BBC

Few pure media brands transcend borders and boundries to acheive the iconic status of the BBC. The institution has come to define public service broadcasting. Yet missteps, errors and judgment questions fuel critics. The BBC battles those critics and competitors and, sometimes, itself. 119 pages PDF (February 2012)

Order here