Wimbledon 2022

[Andrew]

Yes quite emotional, I had a feeling a tribute was incoming when McEnroe returned unannounced

It was good that they also recognised her work outside of Wimbledon, with tributes from Michael Johnson etc

Wimbledon on the BBC won’t be the same again

[SuperSajuuk]

Forgive me as I have no idea about Wimbledon, but how are the BBC allowed to show sponsored graphics such as “Wimbledon game facts” sponsored by American Express and “Rolex check”?

The BBC stopped being host broadcaster of the World Feed after the conclusion of the 2017 Championships. Wimbledon, like the other Grand Slams, took control internally (using the name Wimbledon Broadcasting Services) of the broadcasting and production of their tournament and provides a world feed for all broadcasters, including the BBC, to use for their coverage. This meant that the coverage was able to be standardised in line with Wimbledon's desires (purple, white and green colours across all graphics for example) and also allowed them to be sponsored by [and advertise] whoever they wanted, rather than being limited by the BBC's "no advertising allowed" system.

That being said, despite WBS being host broadcaster now, they continue to follow a number of traditions used by the BBC, such as no advertising in the courts themselves (except the serve speed screen) and continuing to make use of the many BBC commentators used pre-2018 for their World Feed coverage: that being said, the commentators do so in line with WBS timings, rather than waiting for the BBC to "join" the coverage.

[UTVLifer]

Clare Balding has just signed off the BBC One coverage, with a final little tribute to Sue just before the end credits montage started - with the credits themselves having a new yellow gradient background in line with the new graphics

Today at Wimbledon is set to go out at 10pm on BBC Two (hopefully)

[Brekkie]

Should do as BBC2 going to football at 7.45 so the doubles final will have to go to the red button. Doesn't look like BBC4 has been scheduled in a way to pick it up.

Brilliant tribute to Sue - didn't realise Harry Carpenter was still hosting as late as 1993. Nice to here from Des Lynam too. Clare quite emotional too and Billie Jean King not really realising the point she was making about Sue pathing the path for women in sports broadcasting.

[Andrew]

Should do as BBC2 going to football at 7.45 so the doubles final will have to go to the red button.  Doesn't look like BBC4 has been scheduled in a way to pick it up.

Brilliant tribute to Sue - didn't realise Harry Carpenter was still hosting as late as 1993.  Nice to here from Des Lynam too.  Clare quite emotional too and Billie Jean King not really realising the point she was making about Sue pathing the path for women in sports broadcasting.

Doubles final has finished. They are filling with a repeat of the wheelchair final from earlier

A rare example of them running under this championship

[Torpido]

Bbc three had a 745 I did notice it might have gone there but it doesn’t matter now

[Steve Williams]

Brilliant tribute to Sue - didn't realise Harry Carpenter was still hosting as late as 1993.

Yes, 1993 was Harry's last year of Wimbledon, co-presenting the highlights with Sue.

It's quite interesting how Sue joined the Beeb actually, because she started on Sky, hosting the pre-Soccer Saturday Grandstand knock-off Sports Saturday and the tennis they had, and they agreed for her to work for the Beeb during Wimbledon. During the tournament the Beeb realised that her Sky contract had actually expired and they'd failed to offer her a new one yet, so they swooped in and offered her one instead. Sky's Sam Chisholm was incredibly annoyed by this and fell out massively with Jonathan Martin, the Beeb's head of sport, and as Will Wyatt says in his book, Chisholm would then always faithfully refer to him as "that little s*** Martin" and start every meeting with Wyatt about rights asking if he'd been fired yet.

In terms of Wimbledon presenters over the years, at the start of the eighties it was Harry Carpenter presenting the live coverage and Peter West on the highlights. Des replaced West on the highlights in 1983 I think, having previously been a commentator on the radio (as was John Motson), for many years with Gerry Williams of course.

In 1986 I know Steve Rider replaced Harry for the first week because it clashed with a Bruno fight, the same for a few days in 1987 when Barry Davies stood in. And in 1990 Helen Rollason replaced Des as he was busy with the World Cup, but I don't think it was a very happy tournament for her, I think she herself later admitted it was too big a job too early in her career.

In 1991 Harry and Des swapped over so it was Des on the live coverage and Harry on the highlights, in 1993 with Sue of course, before Harry retired in 1994. Then it was Des and Sue for the rest of the nineties. Des mostly prioritised Wimbledon over the World Cup in 1994, with Bob Wilson doing much of the early stages of that, but in 1998 the World Cup took priority and Steve Rider did Wimbledon instead.

Des' last Wimbledon was in 1999, and then in 2000 Sue became main presenter with John Inverdale and then, from 2015, Clare Balding.

It's interesting to think what might have happened if Des hadn't left in 1999 as you had both Sue and Gary Lineker behind him, eager to get on. And both stepped up wonderfully.

[Brekkie]

Yes, just been looking through the schedules especially at 1990 and 1998. You also had the Grandstand factor too where in some years the weekend coverage in the Grandstand slot was hosted by Steve or Des despite them not hosting during the week.

The succession this time feels obvious - it always felt like that was part of the reason Clare replaced John in 2015, and as you say both Des and Sue stepped up from the highlights to the live coverage. I suspect as we've seen this year the shifts will be rejigged so the host kicking off BBC2 coverage, presumably Isa again, is the secondary host, with Clare then coming in for the afternoon and live evening coverage.

Whether she also continues to do Today at Wimbledon depends on what they do about the scheduling of it, if anything. It feels like this year it was more problematic than ever but really it's been like that ever since they moved it from 9.30pm in 2006.

My gut feeling is little will change - at most they might extend BBC1 coverage through to 9pm and perhaps give Today at Wimbledon an hour at 9pm on BBC2 (then they'd be able to run other content at 8pm with little risk of it being pulled), with half hour shows that can easily be replaced at 10pm if necessary. Although they'd still be some overruns and some shows bumped from BBC1 to BBC2 at 9pm I think that would probably run much smoother as you wouldn't have the flagship non-tennis show of the night on BBC1 bumping out the flagship non-tennis show on BBC2 due to the half hour stagger in the schedule.

[Andrew]

And in terms of Sue’s non tennis broadcasting, which she has been winding down for about a decade now.

I’m thinking her last Olympics was 2012, and even then it was a fairly short afternoon time slot she had with quite a lot of presenters being more prominent that year


I agree with Brekkie in that what they decide to do with Today at Wimbledon, and indeed how many hours Clare will do per day are two important points when they will decide what it will look like next year. Remember it’s only fairly recently that Clare has started at teatime rather than just doing the highlights so maybe they will go back to the main host presenting the whole thing, but had they still had a highlights only presenter they would have barely been seen this year.

[AJB39]

P

And in terms of Sue’s non tennis broadcasting, which she has been winding down for about a decade now.

I’m thinking her last Olympics was 2012, and even then it was a fairly short afternoon time slot she had with quite a lot of presenters being more prominent that year


I agree with Brekkie in that what they decide to do with Today at Wimbledon, and indeed how many hours Clare will do per day are two important points when they will decide what it will look like next year. Remember it’s only fairly recently that Clare has started at teatime rather than just doing the highlights so maybe they will go back to the main host presenting the whole thing, but had they still had a highlights only presenter they would have barely been seen this year.

I can’t see them going back to having one host for all the live coverage. Bear in mind that would involve hosting from 11 in the morning to potentially 10 in the evening or later on many of the days. That’s a huge ask of one host over 14 days. Remember for much of Sue’s time hosting on her own, the coverage began at Midday ending at 8 or 8.30 with the middle Sunday off. It’s very different now.

[Tom]

A good send off for Sue and it will be interesting to see what happens with Today at Wimbledon next year.

[madmusician]

And in terms of Sue’s non tennis broadcasting, which she has been winding down for about a decade now.

I’m thinking her last Olympics was 2012, and even then it was a fairly short afternoon time slot she had with quite a lot of presenters being more prominent that year


I agree with Brekkie in that what they decide to do with Today at Wimbledon, and indeed how many hours Clare will do per day are two important points when they will decide what it will look like next year. Remember it’s only fairly recently that Clare has started at teatime rather than just doing the highlights so maybe they will go back to the main host presenting the whole thing, but had they still had a highlights only presenter they would have barely been seen this year.

Yes, Sue had a reasonably light workload in 2012, but she was still really quite prominent. She and Lineker co-hosted the opening and closing ceremonies, and she had the two big ‘set piece’ studio interviews: those with Princes William and Harry and with Jacques Rogge. You’re right to say, though, that others had bigger roles during the fortnight of the 2012 Olympics, with Lineker as the main primetime studio host, Jake Humphrey seemingly being everywhere, Inverdale doing the in-stadium athletics hosting, Clare Balding doing the swimming, Gabby doing the highlights etc etc.

Of course, everybody knew that Jake Humphrey was being groomed for a big 2012 role when he missed the 2010 Japanese GP to host the Delhi Commonwealth Games with Sue (from the TVC BBC Sport studio). It then turned out that he didn’t really do much work with Sue in 2012, but there we are.

The 2014 Winter Olympics were the first not to have Sue hosting for some time (although she missed the latter part of the 2010 Winter Olympics through illness, with Steve Cram hosting the closing ceremony, for example) and she instead worked as the figure skating commentator, a role I think she repeated in 2018?

Has she done anything other than tennis since the 2012 Olympics, other than the figure skating commentary I have just mentioned? Of course, whilst we’ve all been saying ‘Sue’s being phased out’ for the last decade, it has taken ten years for her to move on from Wimbledon and it’s clear that it’s her decision to go at this point, not the BBC’s.

I’d be very surprised if Isa overtook Clare to the main hosting role. I can see Isa hosting the early part of proceedings with Clare taking over in the late-afternoon/evening, and either have Clare cover Today at Wimbledon too, or have another host come in for that.

Being more radical, if I were in charge of the coverage, I think that I would block Wimbledon in on BBC One until 10pm, fill with highlights if necessary between end of play and the close of the programme, but not have a TV programme called Today at Wimbledon at all. Instead, make Today at Wimbledon an iPlayer exclusive that need not have a host/pundits at all - have it as an hour edit of the best of the action, linked together either by voiceover or by text on screen. Clip up some of the other punditry and throw it into the mix if necessary. I’m not sure if I’m explaining this very well, but I can see in my head what it would be like…!

Quite apart from anything else, it will be lovely to see Clare hosting Wimbledon as she introduced a video that I edited a couple of years ago (quite remarkably - not something I ever thought would happen, obviously!!) so I do have a soft spot for her. (This is the video in question - and I am aware that this is well off-topic for a Wimbledon thread! https://youtu.be/_3uDtz3M-fk )

[Brekkie]

Being more radical, if I were in charge of the coverage, I think that I would block Wimbledon in on BBC One until 10pm, fill with highlights if necessary between end of play and the close of the programme, but not have a TV programme called Today at Wimbledon at all. Instead, make Today at Wimbledon an iPlayer exclusive that need not have a host/pundits at all - have it as an hour edit of the best of the action, linked together either by voiceover or by text on screen. Clip up some of the other punditry and throw it into the mix if necessary. I’m not sure if I’m explaining this very well, but I can see in my head what it would be like…!

Doesn't even need to be a programme - just put together 5-10 minute highlights of some of the key matches of the day for viewers to watch on demand.   It's something they used to do but just looking now it seems the online video content is either full replays, very short highlights or mainly short fun packages of little substance.   Sadly since the BBC Sport TV app was closed in it's own right on demand short form video content isn't quite what it was a few years ago.

Similarly they used to fill dead airtime between matches and overnights on the red button with a looped news feed rounding up the action but that has long gone too.

[Andrew]

Brilliant tribute to Sue - didn't realise Harry Carpenter was still hosting as late as 1993.

In 1986 I know Steve Rider replaced Harry for the first week because it clashed with a Bruno fight, the same for a few days in 1987 when Barry Davies stood in. And in 1990 Helen Rollason replaced Des as he was busy with the World Cup, but I don't think it was a very happy tournament for her, I think she herself later admitted it was too big a job too early in her career.

In 1991 Harry and Des swapped over so it was Des on the live coverage and Harry on the highlights, in 1993 with Sue of course, before Harry retired in 1994. Then it was Des and Sue for the rest of the nineties. Des mostly prioritised Wimbledon over the World Cup in 1994, with Bob Wilson doing much of the early stages of that, but in 1998 the World Cup took priority and Steve Rider did Wimbledon instead.

Des' last Wimbledon was in 1999, and then in 2000 Sue became main presenter with John Inverdale and then, from 2015, Clare Balding.

It's interesting to think what might have happened if Des hadn't left in 1999 as you had both Sue and Gary Lineker behind him, eager to get on. And both stepped up wonderfully.

To add to that I’ve just had a look at genome, and the very business end of Euro 96 also clashed with Wimbledon. Sue Barker covered for Des for a few days before and after the semis and final of the football which clashed with the first week/middle Sunday

Looking back it seems odd today the idea of a presenter juggling two gigs at the same time, but I suppose Des was such a big name, having him host partially was better than him sitting out the whole year

---

Forgive me as I have no idea about Wimbledon, but how are the BBC allowed to show sponsored graphics such as “Wimbledon game facts” sponsored by American Express and “Rolex check”?

The BBC stopped being host broadcaster of the World Feed after the conclusion of the 2017 Championships. Wimbledon, like the other Grand Slams, took control internally (using the name Wimbledon Broadcasting Services) of the broadcasting and production of their tournament and provides a world feed for all broadcasters, including the BBC, to use for their coverage. This meant that the coverage was able to be standardised in line with Wimbledon's desires (purple, white and green colours across all graphics for example) and also allowed them to be sponsored by [and advertise] whoever they wanted, rather than being limited by the BBC's "no advertising allowed" system.

That being said, despite WBS being host broadcaster now, they continue to follow a number of traditions used by the BBC, such as no advertising in the courts themselves (except the serve speed screen) and continuing to make use of the many BBC commentators used pre-2018 for their World Feed coverage: that being said, the commentators do so in line with WBS timings, rather than waiting for the BBC to "join" the coverage.

Is any of the commentary that we hear on BBC One and BBC Two ‘world feed’ or BBC specific?

[Brekkie]

Is any of the commentary that we hear on BBC One and BBC Two ‘world feed’ or BBC specific?

All of the commentary is technically World Feed, although clearly despite no longer being the host broadcast the BBC must have considerable influence over that.