ESPN’s Multiplatform Coverage of Wimbledon

Kind of strange to see a press release from ESPN on Wimbledon on the night before the event is to take place, but with ESPN in World Cup mode, it’s kind of understandable. Let’s take a look at the coverage as ESPN2 and ESPNU will have coverage this week. ESPN2 is airing World Cup games so when it’s showing soccer from South Africa, tennis will be shuffled to ESPNU. Not everyone has it so if your internet service provider has a deal with ESPN3.com, you’ll be able to see tennis, but if it doesn’t, then you’re SOL.

We’ll also watch if NBC pulls shenanigans during the second week with tape delayed tennis.

Here’s the press release:

Wimbledon & ESPN, Inc. – TV, Online, Mobile & More

ESPN will once again provide the most extensive coverage of The Championships: Wimbledon across its media platforms – led by more than 100 hours on television and 600-plus on broadband ESPN3.com. Fans can follow the live action on their favorite or most-convenient screen beginning Monday, June 21, with daylong weekday coverage throughout the fortnight from the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club. 

U.S. Television

ESPN2 will begin daylong live weekday programming in high definition when the first ball goes into the air Monday, June 21, continuing daily through Friday, July 2, sharing coverage during the first week with ESPNU (now seen in more than 72 million homes and being utilized while FIFA World Cup games are aired on ESPN and ESPN2). The schedule is again highlighted by one Ladies’ and one Gentlemen’s semifinal, Thursday, July 1, and Friday, July 2, respectively. 

Cliff Drysdale and Dick Enberg lead the ESPN tennis team, working with Darren Cahill, Mary Carillo, Mary Joe Fernandez, Brad Gilbert, Luke Jensen, Patrick McEnroe and Pam Shriver. Hannah Storm will host while Tom Rinaldi will be on hand for essays and features.

Gentlemen’s and Ladies’ First Round commences Monday, June 20, on ESPN2 from 6:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. with the following matches:

(8) Kim Clijsters (BEL) vs Maria Elena Camerin (ITA)

(1) Roger Federer (SUI) vs Alejandro Falla (COL)

(5) Andy Roddick (USA) vs Rajeev Ram (USA)

Mardy Fish (USA) vs Bernard Tomic (AUS)

(3) Novak Djokovic (SRB) vs Olivier Rochus (BEL)

(2) Venus Williams (USA) vs Rossana De Los Rios (PAR)

(33) Melanie Oudin (USA) vs Anna-Lena Groenefeld (GER)

Notes: 

• On Monday, June 28 – Wednesday, June 30, ESPN2 will provide alternate programming in the Pacific Time Zone from 1 – 4 p.m. ET (10 a.m. – 1 p.m. PT).
• ESPN’s live match coverage will be supplemented by Tennis Channel’s evening program, with highlights, interviews and features Monday, June 21 – Wednesday, June 30, from 7 – 11 p.m.

ESPN3.com

ESPN3.com will provide a multi-court offering with play from all nine TV courts and press conferences totaling more than 600 hours of live action.  In addition, the broadband service – which reaches more than 50 million U.S. homes – will offer replays on demand of all four semifinals and both finals.  The semifinals will be available at 8 p.m. the day they are contested; the finals will both be available beginning late Sunday, July 4, at midnight (9 p.m. PT).

ESPN3.com, the company’s signature live sports broadband network, is a 24/7 online destination that delivers more than 4,000 live, global sports events annually. It is the only broadband outlet with all four of tennis’ Grand Slam events, totaling 1,600 hours of action, and also carries nine ATP 500 tournaments and other tennis throughout the year.

ESPN3.com is available at no cost to fans who receive their high-speed Internet connection from an affiliated provider.  ESPN3.com is currently available in more than 50 million homes.  It is also available at no cost to 21 million U.S. college students and U.S.-based military personnel via computers connected to on-campus educational networks and on-base military networks (those with “.edu” and “.mil” domains).      

More Wimbledon from ESPN, Inc.

ESPN.com

• Wimbledon Central:  ESPN.com will again feature Wimbledon Central, a dynamic content application that will feature the official live scoring for all matches throughout the tournament. Additionally, Wimbledon Central will be available for the first time on the ESPN Mobile Web site.  
• The Pulse: A multi-tool application with all-court scoring, match stats, Cover It Live conversations, poll questions, rolling Twitter feeds and scrolling bottom line;
• Slam Central: A daily destination for all Wimbledon fixtures.  

ESPN Interactive TV will be enjoyed exclusively on DIRECTV during the first six days of competition. A six-screen mosaic will include the ESPN2/ESPNU match and feeds from five individual courts. Production will be enhanced with press conferences, interviews and features elements that will be added during court changeovers and between matches. All six screens can be expanded to full screen mode or picture-in-picture at the touch of the remote button. In addition, DIRECTV will offer “Matches On Now,” a graphic across the bottom of the screen with scores from each of the matches currently on the court channels, with the ability to tune directly to the match, and “Results,” an instant look at real-time scores and schedule info for matches ahead – all without leaving the match the viewer is watching. In total, ESPN will provide more than 300 hours of coverage that is exclusive to interactive TV. 

ESPN Mobile

ESPN Mobile TV and ESPN MVP will have 30 hours of live co
verage, including the Women’s and Men’s quarterfinals and coverage of a Women’s and Men’s semifinal via ESPN’s industry-leading mobile Web site and through the signature ESPN MVP application. 

ESPN Video-On-Demand will carry the historic championship match between Bjorn Borg vs. John McEnroe from 1980 in recognition of its 30th anniversary.

ESPN Deportes, ESPN’s Spanish-language network in the U.S. will offer five hours of Wimbledon programming.  Coverage for ESPN Deportes, as well as ESPN International, will be handled by Luis Alfredo Alvarez and Eduardo Varela alongside former tennis players Javier Frana and Jose Luis Clerc as analysis.  Tennis reporter Pablo Stecco will report from Wimbledon for ESPN Deportes and ESPN International’s  SportsCenter editions around the world.

ESPN International will reach 30 million viewers outside the U.S with 70+ live hours pan-regionally in Latin America on ESPN Latin America and on ESPN Caribbean, in addition to daily primetime highlight programs.  ESPN+ in the Southern Cone and ESPN Dos in the Northern Cone will supplement the coverage on ESPN Latin America with an additional 50+ live hours. In addition, ESPN 360.com in Argentina (branded ESPNPlay) Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, Paraguay, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras and Venezuela (branded ESPNPlay) will offer 550 hours of live coverage.

ESPN – All Four Grand Slams.  All in One Place.

Tennis has been part of ESPN since its first week on the air and has provided many memorable moments, but it has never been as important as today, with the US Open joining the lineup in 2009, giving ESPN all four Grand Slam events, something no other network has ever done. 

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. 

Almost all the tennis is found on ESPN2, giving the network the identity as the destination for tennis fans and giving the sport a home that is flexible enough to carry extensive live programming – and adding to the schedule as storylines dictate. ESPN and ESPN2 both reach 99 million households nationwide.  Also, ESPN Classic shows great matches from the past and the sport receives extensive coverage on SportsCenter, ESPNEWS, broadband ESPN3.com, Spanish-language ESPN Deportes, ESPN Radio, ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine.

Coming up next, the schedule for ESPN2/ESPNU for the fortnight after the break.

That’s it. We’re done.