Live from Wimbledon 2022: ESPN on the future of The Championships and the importance of player access By George Bevir
Tuesday, July 12, 2022 - 20:36
Print This Story
For ESPN, the focus of this year's Wimbledon was restore its presentation to 2019 levels. While COVID caused the cancellation of the 2020 Championships and the 2021 iteration of the tournament to operate with reduced numbers of production staff and spectators, this year marked a return to form for the broadcaster, which is the exclusive home of The Championships in the US and a long-term broadcast partner of Wimbledon.
There's so much enthusiasm to come and be a part of this we wanted to get everybody back and provide the full Wimbledon experience. We had a restorative mindset to harness everything here and turn it all back on again, says ESPN VP production Jamie Reynolds, who spoke with SVG during the second week of the tournament.
Anybody can stream coverage of 18 courts, but to get the investment from viewers we need the first-person voice of the players
Today, we have multiple control rooms, with a Centre Court channel on ESPN 1, and on ESPN 2 we have Court 1 and footage from around the grounds, so it's a linear day of 10 hours programming but divided up so we are really doing 20 hours today. That means you need enough creative talent and horsepower to make sure that flight pattern works.
To support its production, there are some 12 staff from ESPN International, 25 for DirecTV and 90 from production services partner and OB firm NEP UK. For its coverage, ESPN can take from the 70 feeds from host broadcaster Wimbledon Broadcast Services (WBS) which provides court feeds, isolated cameras, and behind-the-scenes cameras. This is supplemented by ESPN's own 28 cameras with six on court for game coverage, two RF cameras and a pair of roving cabled cameras and cameras in the three announce booths as well as the three set locations. In addition, ESPN is operating 10 EVS replay servers, with an extra nine for logging matches, over 30 EVS IPDirectors, three Avid edit suites and nine Avid stations to build feature material.
Middle Sunday challenge
This year, All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) added another day to the two-week Wimbledon schedule by hosting fourth-round matches on middle Sunday' which has traditionally been a rest day - for the players, as well as some staff. ESPN associate director Larry Wilson says: Now we have done away with that middle Sunday break, it has opened the opportunity for more programming which is a great advantage, especially on a holiday weekend. From an operational standpoint, during week one we used to do a show for DirecTV for AT&T where the control room would output five courts of coverage. We used to have middle Sunday to change that control room over to a single output control room for dual networks; today we are on ESPN and ESPN 2. But since we did programming on Sunday, we couldn't start that changeover until 7pm to be ready for air on Monday morning.
For Reynolds, it brings Wimbledon into line with other major tennis tournaments. The players are used to it, so it's not a game changer on that front, he says. Historically, we had always done a three-hour show on ABC on middle Sunday that was a weekend review'-style show, so 50% of our roster would come in on Sunday anyway to put together the three-hour review so we're kind of already in that rhythm. And as I often say, it can be easier to do live television rather than post producing a bunch of highlights that need to be turned around quickly.
ESPN VP production Jamie Reynolds
Together with the AELTC, Reynolds is already looking to the future of ESPN's coverage of Wimbledon. The broadcaster first acquired rights to Wimbledon with the 2003 Championships and obtained exclusivity to the entire fortnight back in 2012. Last year, it signed a 12 year agreement with the AELTC that will run from 2024 until 2035.
As part of that deal, ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC will continue to present 140-plus hours of coverage over the fortnight. ESPN+ will have live streaming of all courts throughout the fortnight along with live coverage of the qualifying rounds and access to all ancillary content produced by AELTC, such as films, archive matches, highlight shows and press conferences. Wimbledon coverage will be presented across all screens via ESPN and Disney platforms, while ESPN Deportes will continue to provide coverage in Spanish in the US. In addition, ESPN's rights around the world will include Canada via TSN and RDS, Latin America, the Caribbean and Brazil.
Futureproofing and planning
We've got a great agenda for what we're going to do in the next five or six years, says Reynolds. There is a vision to say how can [ESPN and AELTC] create the best possible product? The question for us, is how can we take 18 courts, 10 to 12 hours of matches per day and give the fan base a much of a menu as possible? It's really a long-range plan; how do you make the linear network special so that when there is play on Centre Court or Court 1, how do you make that unique? And for the passionate fanbase that might want to watch the action on court 18, you might need to give them a service on the ESPN ecosystem so that they can watch a dedicated feed. So, every day, depending on the order of play, it changes the way we package content daily.
More immediate is the redevelopment of the broadcast centre and media pavilion, which Wilson says will provide an opportunity for futureproofing ESPN's on site set up. Later this week we will be walking with Wimbledon Broadcast Services (WBS) to go through the physical design of the rooms and consider how we might be able to redesign them to suit our needs. We will more of an IP-based infrastructure and distribution, so we'll be replacing a lot of
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
22/10/2025
Prime Video Inks Deal To Present NFL Black Friday Game Worldwide By SVG Staff
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 10:06 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
22/10/2025
NBA Tip-Off: ESPN Goes 1080p HDR End-to-End, Flipping HDR Switch on REMI and REM...
22/10/2025
FloSports Empowers Division II, III Athletic Departments With Turnkey Production...
22/10/2025
Wall Street Video Summit Debuts, Bringing Together 200 Financial Enterprise Vide...
22/10/2025
Dueling Pianos: International Chopin Piano Competition Is as Competitive as a Ba...
22/10/2025
In 1995, a young Colombian artist released an album that would change Latin pop ...
22/10/2025
Over the past few months, a photovoltaic system has been installed on a three-he...
22/10/2025
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis II mission is stacked on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kenn...
22/10/2025
L3Harris' Hybrid SATCOM is resilient by design, offering path diversity that eliminates vulnerabilities by routing data across the best available networks i...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. Organizers of NAB Show New York said they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countries along with 260 exhibitor...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, supplied an extensive gear package of professional-grade equipment for ...
22/10/2025
Lightware, a global leader in signal management and AV connectivity solutions, is seeing strong market momentum for the UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20, a compact transmitter-...
22/10/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Chyron has released PAINT 10.2, the latest update for its telestration platform, adding support for SMPTE ST 2110 IP workflows, expanding brandin...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON Run3TV today said NBCUniversal is joining as an investor in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, which develops the Run3TV NextGen TV application platfo...
22/10/2025
ATLANTA swXtch.io will feature two new networking solutions extending the company's reach across more cloud and on-prem workflows at NAB Show New York, set ...
22/10/2025
The Warner Bros. Discoverys HBO Max streaming services has increased prices for all its streaming tiers effectively immediately for new customers. Existing cust...
22/10/2025
LOS ANGELES OpenDrives has signed a new distribution partnership deal with Versatile Distribution Services (VDS) to strengthen its channel and streamline how it...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Samora Pinderhughes Brings Immersive Sound to Berklee's Signature Series The artist and composer, who's worked with Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Co...
22/10/2025
BMI Day at Berklee Celebrates Composer Fil Eisler and Awards Scholarship to Stud...
22/10/2025
October 22nd, 2025 TRIBECA ANNOUNCES STAR-STUDDED LINEUP OF MEMBERSHIP EVENTS F...
22/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF cooperate in drone defense Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF partner to deliver a comprehensive drone defense solution combining Rohde & S...
22/10/2025
European Broadcaster Upgrades To Grass Valley's NativeIP LDX 135 Cameras And...
22/10/2025
Everyone Gets a Better Deal on Verizon with New FOX One Perk The $15 FOX One streaming service perk is yet another way Verizon continues to add savings for cu...
22/10/2025
First Look Hidden Assets Series 3
Premieres on 9th November 9:30pm on RT One & RT Player
WATCH HERE Promo Link: Hidden Assets Series 3 | RT
The Crimin...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Although AES Show Is on Its Own, Audio Will Be a Major Part o...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Business of Broadcast and Media,' Future of Content'...
21/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Ethan Folz, Senior Director, Digital Operations and Quality of Ex...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: Livestream Offers Graphic Overlays, Predictive Gaming, Ancil...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: At the Front Bench With Producer Frank DiGraci and Director ...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: NBC Sports, NEP Build Ultra-Flexible Production Plan That Se...
21/10/2025
Indigenous storytelling has been at the heart of the work of the Sundance Instit...
21/10/2025
Top L-R: Mysterious Skin, American Dream Second Row L-R: Little Miss Sunshine, D...
21/10/2025
Last week, Spotify and Columbia Records transformed Pier 4 at the Brooklyn Army ...
21/10/2025
SBS Learn's Dharug Ngurra resource empowers classrooms to meaningfully celeb...
21/10/2025
As global operators simplify and evolve their digital platforms, NPS improvement...
21/10/2025
Critical Design Review completion is a key milestone on the path toward Wideband Global Satellite Communications certification for the network in 2026, opening ...
21/10/2025
New Australian undersea training range to implement and improve warfighting tactics, proficiency and safety; enable joint/allied training that contributes to pr...
21/10/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
21/10/2025
September, the beginning of autumn, brought an expected revival to the TV market, largely due to the new fall TV schedules. The time spent in front of the TV sc...
21/10/2025
Broadcast Booms with 20% Uptick vs. August, Achieving Largest Monthly
Increase ...
21/10/2025
During September, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 24.5%, a marginal shift of -0.5 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YU...
21/10/2025
RENNES, France BBright and GlobalM have conducted a technical trial validating Ultra HD interoperability across the entire contribution chain in the cloud, achi...
21/10/2025
Kokusai Denki Electric America will mark the U.S. debut of a new 4K camera at the 2025 NAB New York, Oct. 22-23. Now available, the Z-HD6500-S1 UHD/HD productio...
21/10/2025
Triveni Digital, a trusted leader in ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 service delivery, data broadcasting, and quality assurance solutions, will showcase its entire NEXTGEN TV ...
21/10/2025
Radio Azzurra FM, longest-running radio station in the province of Novara, northwest Italy, has invested in an DHD SX2 audio routing and mixing console for inte...
21/10/2025
Globecast, the leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, has announced the appointment of G Morgan as Executive Vice President of...
Live from Wimbledon 2022: ESPN on the future of The Championships and the importance of player access By George Bevir 
