Beginning Of An Era: Nighttime Wimbledon TV

Philip M. Stone July 1, 2009 Follow on Twitter

It was nail-biting tennis full of suspense but Monday’s Wimbledon singles match between the British idol Andy Murray and the unknown Swiss Stanislaw Wawrinka (Mr. Federer is the known Swiss) had one ingredient never before experienced – it was played under the lights of the new Center Court sliding roof and a great tennis match became a huge nighttime TV success. But Wimbledon being Wimbledon, where change is very slow to progress, the organizers said this was the exception, not the rule, but you just know TV executives want to persuade them differently.

The BBC quickly decided this game had to go on its premier BBC1 so it dumped all of its scheduled programming for the night onto its BBC2 but even then because of the length of the match its treasured BBC News at 10 (nothing, but nothing, usually is allowed to disrupt that newscast) became for the night the BBC News at 10:50.

But the ratings showed once again how a live sporting event is something that will bring people back to terrestrial TV, and in this case the BBC saw up to 12.6 million viewers, really very good for a Monday summer’s evening. In comparison when ITV showed the Rugby World Cup Final in 2007 on a Saturday night (England lost to South Africa) – that well advertised match-up saw a top audience of 13.13 million.

And in Switzerland where Wimbledon is shown on three of the public broadcaster’s six stations – it has two stations for each official language of French, Italian and German – Wimbledon coverage was to have ended no later than around 7:30 p.m. on Monday but with a Swiss (even though it was the unknown Swiss) playing Murray with the new roof on the Swiss stations stayed with the game on their secondary  stations that usually cover live sporting events (coverage not switched to the main channels of each language as did the BBC, doubtful they would have done it even for Federer).

Except for the major tournaments where there is blanket coverage, Swiss television usually shows only Roger Federer semifinal and final games at lesser tournaments (before that it was Martina Hingis – remember her?) Federer is a big draw because, let’s face it, he may just be the finest tennis player ever and the Swiss don’t often get to see one of their own win events so often  (sometimes winter sports).

But this has been a tough year for Federer, losing the Australian Open (the Swiss HD channel cut away from that award ceremony after loser Federer came to tears so much and so we didn’t get to hear what Nadal had to say) and he didn’t do too well in tournaments before the French (the “other” Swiss actually beat him in the first round of one tournament!) So when it came to the French every Federer game was televised to big ratings and the same again with Wimbledon. But Swiss TV clearing the evening schedule for Wawrinka – that’s another first.

Back to that Wimbledon night game – Pam Shriver, former US tennis star and now a broadcaster, told the BBC that US coverage stayed with the Murray game live – she said she was out on Henman Hill (named after the former British Number one who now does BBC commentary) and although night fell she said she felt perfectly safe – something she said she couldn’t say if it was in New York. (Mayor Bloomberg might want to have a PR word with her about that!).

It may surprise our American readers to know that John McEnroe when he is not commentating the American matches on US TV is doing BBC commentary and hearing him explain what Murray needed to do to his game, and the Swiss too, just added immeasurably to the coverage. Henman or Greg Rudeski, two former British players, also do BBC commentary but there is no comparison to McEnroe.

So is nighttime Wimbledon TV permanently with us? The official word is “no”; officials say they will only do it again if it is raining or the light is not good. It was fortuitous they kept the roof closed Monday (it had been closed during the match before because of a light shower) but they kept it closed for the Murray match because of the expectation of rain (which didn’t come). Good thing it stayed closed, too, because it gets dark at Wimbledon around 9:15 p.m. and therefore the match could never have been completed in the sunshine, and would have had to carry over to Tuesday which really does no one any favors. There are no lights without the roof closed.

Ian Ritchie, the All England Club executive (Wimbledon CEO) insists the priority is to have the roof open – he says Wimbledon is a summer event after all and the matches should be played in the sun and the line he continued to put out Tuesday was that only rain or poor light would close the roof. At least, that’s the official line.

But Ritchie understands TV very well – he has held many senior TV executive positions including heading up Middle East Broadcasting when it was based in London, and after that he was in charge of the AP’s European operations. He understands the value of nighttime – primetime – Wimbledon TV and so the real question is how long it takes him to convince the All England Club board – their seeing Dollar, Euro, and Pound signs from increased TV rights fees could probably help the decision process along.

For all of that, what was obvious from Monday night’s match is that tennis at Wimbledon under the lights with the roof closed made for great television. Of course, in this case there was the British star that the Brits wanted to watch – would the UK ratings have been the same if it was for a Serb playing a Croat?

The order of matches played is determined by the All England Club but it does take suggestions from the TV broadcasters. The BBC, for instance, always wants Murray playing the last match of the day so those returning home from work can tune in. Apparently the Swiss don’t have that type of leverage because Federer has been the first men’s game on Center Court every time he has appeared so far (or maybe Swiss TV figures everyone at work will tune in anyway?)  The Americans also play late in the day, bearing in mind that London is five hours ahead of New York. 

Murray plays last today against Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, and depending whether any of the matches before go to five sets will there be time to finish the Murray match in the sunshine or will they close the roof to ensure the match gets finished? The official line is if it’s sunny and good light the roof stays open. But might there be a fudge and they close it during the match if the light fades?

Wimbledon is full of tradition – players must wear predominantly white, there is no play on the middle Sunday (can’t tell you how pleased TV, and the players, are with that but it’s the day of the traditional media cricket game and so life goes on.) But the success of Monday night should at least have the Wimbledon officials thinking that having spent some GPB 80 million ($130 million) on a new roof that draws the TV crowds at night that maybe there’s a way to get a financial return on that money  much sooner than they might have previously thought.