We’re mad as hell, aren’t we American tennis fans? NBC’s tape delayed “protections” have ruined the second week of Wimbledon – slicing and dicing the coverage in a thoroughly discombobulating matter. And you East Coasters have it good – on the West Coast, we’re stuck with a three hour window between 7am and 10am when there is no tennis on at all!
Yes, we can visit the livestreams. But is looking at a blurry, buffered, postage-stamp-sized simulacrum of Wimbledon’s hallowed Centre Court really an acceptable alternative, especially when big networks like ESPN and NBC are there, at Wimbledon, burning through money and resources to supposedly broadcast tennis in diamond-sharp HD?
Yes, it’s just us, the disenfranchised tennis fans, against Big Media and millions of dollars worth of broadcast rights. But we need to do what we can! Tennis fans, unite!
FIGHT BACK AGAINST NBC’s WIMBLEDON TAPE DELAY:
Option 1: Send a message to the All England Club, which sells broadcast rights and can dictate conditions to networks. Click here for Wimbledon’s TV broadcast feedback form.
Option 2: Email NBC a withering critique.
DICK EBERSOL, CHAIRMAN OF NBC SPORTS: Dick.Ebersol@nbcuni.com
NBC SPORTS: nbcsportshelp@nbcuni.com
Option 3: Sign the online petition
Option 4: If you have any better options than those above, let us know!
Word to the wise – keep your feedback civil and constructive and it will be taken more seriously. I’ve included some great examples of mainstream tennis fan outrage below.
The New York Times reads NBC the riot act:
If NBC Sports can’t carry Wimbledon matches live, especially crucial ones, it shouldn’t carry Wimbledon at all. The network’s tape-delay dance — and its excuses — have grown tired. . .
We’ve heard for years NBC’s reasons for tape-delaying Wimbledon and the French Open: its allergy to pre-empting the “Today” show on weekday mornings and past difficulties in pre-empting Saturday morning kiddie programming or Sunday morning religious shows. It’s become so much yadda yadda yadda. I’m sure that NBC knew that those majors were played in Europe when it signed those deals. And I’m sure that it’s 2009 — technology keeps changing, and fans have little or no tolerance for sports events not shown live.
NBC’s license to tape-delay matches dates to old contracts the All England Club should have changed long ago. Now, the club must require significant change. No fan should have to care that NBC’s arrangements, in its world, or with ESPN, mitigate against live match broadcasts. (click here for the full article.)
NBC’s lame explanation via Sports Business Daily:
NBC gets to choose one match to show in their window. The broadcaster chose the Federer-Ivo Karlovic match, even though it could not be aired live. “We’re following history,” said an NBC spokesperson, referencing Federer going for his record 15th Grand Slam title.
Yeah, NBC is “following” history alright – following by about 2-3 hours. This isn’t the stone age (i.e. pre-internet.) Sports fans demand and deserve LIVE COVERAGE. Tennis fans should not be treated like children at Christmas (“No peeking!”)
My favorite line comes from an article on Yahoo! Sports: “No wonder the network makes great decisions like dumping Leno for Conan and spending $10 million for one episode of ‘Kings.”
Word. (Except for the Conan thing – love him!)
In closing, I’ll say one kind word about NBC – it got last year’s final right. It’s disappointing that NBC has squandered all of that goodwill and excitement – this was the opportunity to grow the game and the audience, not confound it.
Tags: NBC, tennis, Wimbledon, Wimbledon coverage
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Great post. I’ve been fuming about the coverage.
There’s one more thing that tennis fans can do: write the sponsors. Make note of whose commercials show during the breaks in play and then write the companies.
NBC is especially vulnerable to pressure from their sponsors right now because they have the worst ratings of any of the major networks. They cannot afford to lose or antagonize the companies paying for airtime!
Thanks, Carrie!
THANKS for the time and effort spent organizing this campaign. I thought options 1, 2 and 3 were great and completed those. For too long tennis fans have been frustrated with tv tennis coverage. ESPN isn’t much better with so much time spent showing the commentators on screen (ugh) when perfectly good tennis is being played. It irks me that ESPN/NBC never shows the beginning of any major match (except maybe finals) opting to show Chris Fowler instead. He doesn’t know the game, he’s just repeating Patrick, Cliff, Darren or MaryJo. Thanks again hope we get some respect as a result.
Hi Tracy!
Thanks so much for sending those emails!
I’m hoping that I get at least one response in writing from the powers that be – just acknowledging the problem would be nice. I’ll keep you posted and please let me know if you hear back! Not holding my breath through. . .
its great to read not only you blogging about this but also all the people commenting. I live in LA so those 3 hr gaps were so mysterious to me. NONE of my friends r much tennis fans, so I was sitting here fuming every morning this week by myself. One friend even said, “its time u find a sport to watch that’s actually televised.” well, it was up until last week. This is why I almost enjoy watching masters because the tennischannel does such an awesome job. Anyway, I have been on a mission to get tennis discussed more in the mainstream via twitter. My focus is PTI, u should all twitter them too!
they are ptishow & I’m ptigirl!
Hi PTI! Thanks for dropping by! I hope you send some emails and help me represent for L.A.!
I second your desire to make tennis more mainstream. If that happens, maybe we won’t get screwed by the networks. . .it’s just embarrassing.
weird, I’ve tried posting comments here a few times but they didn’t show up.
Sorry, hcfoo! I have no idea why that is the case. . .hope it’s just a fluke.
Figured it out – Wordpress thought it was spam because of all the links. So I approved it! Thanks for the info – really interesting. Somehow I don’t think NBC Sports will be calling me for lunch. . .but let us know how the meeting goes.
It’s sad because tennis fans have been treated like low class sports fans… and this is happening around the world.
Is there anyway to get the complaint in the press?
Recently I wrote a letter to a local newspaper complaining about the MS coverage on my paid TV (http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/4/23/focus/3731068&sec=focus)
They took it quite seriously by replying to my letter and even called me up to have a friendly lunch meeting to discuss the issue (http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/5/10/focus/3865813&sec=focus
FF, you are absolutely my hero! Thanks for getting this together. I’ve mentioned something about on my Twitter page, but hadn’t taken it further. I’m with you a 1000 percent!
Yes, NBC is laughable. It’s like they’re telling us, “Pretend there’s no such thing as the internet and wait for tape delay”. WTF? I’ll sign the petition and send the emails too. This nonsense has got to stop or at the very least we have to try to make our voices heard.
HERE HERE! We have the same problem with the nine network in Australia. It’s disgraceful!
One word to describe this. BULLSHIT.
I truly would LOVE to see NBC show taped quarterfinal and semifinals of NBA basketball and substitute the live match for The Today Show, and SEE how BIG of a mob comes storming to 30 Rockefeller with pitchforks and torches.
OFF WITH THEIR HEADS I SAY!
God forbid NBC would disrupt the 4th hour of the Today Show to broadcast live tennis at Wimbledon. This Grand Slam is the Superbowl to us tennis fans.
I love how they’ve decided to “follow history”, but where were they when Nadal was being knocked out of the French Open and Federer nearly lost the Semifinals in Paris? The only thing NBC is capable of broadcasting are the finals. That’s it.
I can’t help wonder what the heck they are thinking? This is not the procedure for the Super Bowl is it? NBC is stupid. Whomever is in charge of tennis broadcasting should be let go and replaced asap.
Tennis Channel does a great job and so does ESPN. Sponsers need to hear this message, too.
I get absolutely infuriated anytime I think about NBC’s lack of live coverage of the matches. It’s absurd! As others have stated, if they tried to tape delay any of the “mainstream” sports, their would be rioting. How can the USTA expect to grow the public’s interest in the sport if our influential television networks treat it as a second class sport?
Does anyone know what the TV coverage will be for tomorrow’s matches? According to the TV schedule, ESPN2 will be on the air from 7-noon and then NBC from noon-5. Does this mean that we’ll get the Fed match live on ESPN2 in the morning? This is so frustrating!!
Hi there! NBC mentioned today during the Williams/Safina match that they will show Roddick vs. Murray live (if you live on the East coast) starting at noon.
If we base everything on East Coast time (us West Coasters are so screwed, its not even worth figuring out) I’m STILL confused as to how live coverage is possible:
ESPN has coverage from 7am – noon and will be showing Roger vs. Haas when that match starts at 8am. But what happens if Roger/Haas wraps up in under 4 hours and Roddick/Murray starts before noon? ESPN likely won’t be able to show it due to NBC’s protections. So is NBC going to bring on Roddick/Murray a few games (or sets) into the action? Or tape delay it and show it from the beginning.
This just takes way too much brain power to try to figure out. I’m going to visit NBC’s live streaming once the Haas/Federer match is over (unless thew one does go over four hours!!!!) and hope for the best.
I bet at some point NBC will site ratings. Yeah really, you got low rating on a match we knew hours and hours before hand what happened. I haven’t watched any actual tennis in the last few days because I find it boring, I already know what happened and it is kinda boring to watch. I find it more interesting to watch numbers change on a webpage.
Just stumbled onto this while looking for something entirely different….
I’ve actually be Tweeting for a couple of days that someone needed to start a petition, but I was kind of half-joking. Anyway, I agree with most of the points raised here, but let me also play devil’s advocate, and perhaps, offer a solution rather than just add to the chorus of complaints.
First of all, I don’t know where you guys get your facts (assumptions?), but the Today show has great ratings, even in the 11am hour. It’s the top morning show in the country, with a consistent 30% lead over their nearest competitors. Tennis, OTOH, actually offers NBC nothing in return in terms of revenue or ratings. Bear in mind also that tennis ratings have been consistently slipping for the past 10 years. That doesn’t exactly leave us fans in the best end of in terms of bargaining.
NBC knows they have a problem with tennis coverage. Honestly, let’s not kid ourselves into thinking this isn’t the first year they’ve experienced these issues with Wimbledon and Roland Garros. But NBC Sports has been carrying Wimbledon for over 40 years and they’re committed to it, which is great.
The crux of the problem is really just weekday coverage. NBC and AELTC’s current contract goes through 2011, so the best bet is a renegotiation on those terms to exclude weekday coverage and offer those up to ESPN2 or Tennis Channel (preferably the former).
Bear in mind, however, that due to the way that QF’s are scheduled, live coverage will still be a problem… but at least we’ll still have something to complain about!
Cheers,
lynn
Hi Lynn – thanks for stopping by.
But I don’t see your solution in your comments – short of getting involved in contract renegotiation. . .and I’d argue that the only way for us tennis fans to get involved is to contact Wimbledon, contact NBC, and vent with a petition.
If you have some better contact info or more proactive methods, please share and we’ll hit the virtual pavement!
In terms of the facts – nobody here was saying that the Today Show’s ratings aren’t going to kick Wimbledon’s ass – we’re just saying that if NBC is going to commit to showing a live sporting event, they should show it live in all time zones. If that means just weekends, fine, but as you said, the network shouldn’t hold the matches hostage on the weekdays.
I agree with the NYTimes on this – enough excuses. Give us our tennis or let someone else give it to us.
“Tennis, OTOH, actually offers NBC nothing in return in terms of revenue or ratings. Bear in mind also that tennis ratings have been consistently slipping for the past 10 years. That doesn’t exactly leave us fans in the best end of in terms of bargaining.”
My problem with the reasoning here: 1. Tennis ratings have been slipping because of poor coverage + increasing internet use. If the network bothered to show live matches in full, it would grow the potential audience and increase ratings. It’s hard for new fans to become interested when they see half (or less–many times NBC just picks it up in the final set) of a match they already know the results for, and there’s no real incentive for diehard fans to watch when they’ve probably already seen it streaming live, or when they’re so frustrated by things like the network cutting into play to show commercials or commentators.
A recent study showed that tennis is the fastest growing sport in the US; the audience is there.
As far as advertisers go, tennis should be a dream. I don’t mean to generalize here, but tennis fans tend to fall into a higher income bracket, which is something companies look at when deciding which shows to sponsor. This is the reason NBC shows like 30 Rock have stayed on the air when their ratings are otherwise abysmal–they do well in higher income demos and companies are willing to spend more money for advertising spots in their time slots.
NBC sets tennis up to fail, ratings-wise, so it does. Simple as that. If NBC managed it correctly, tennis fans would be happier and NBC would have better ratings.
But then there is a reason that NBC has seen a massive ratings drop across the board in recent years. They’ve mismanaged a lot of things, not just tennis.
(Sorry for the long comment, but this subject is related to my job, and I have a tendency to ramble.
Pardon the typos above. Bleh. You should add the comment edit plugin.
Forgot one thing. Like we say in Lake Woebegon: It could be worse. Dish Network dropped Tennis Channel in the middle of Wimbledon. So, if you’re an office hump who looked forward to watching the matches during the evening, well, TFB.
Well, glad I didn’t get Dish and stuck with DirecTV then. DirecTV does a really nice job with the Mix channels the first week of the tournament. You can choose from continuous coverage of up to five (maybe six) courts. It’s wonderful. They do it for all the Grand Slams.
Since you seem to agree that weekday coverage is the problem, let me be clearer: Why don’t you consider rewriting your petition to add some more substantive reasons as to why and how NBC could address it?
Perhaps you’ll get more signatures that way, too. Good luck!
My petition is clear – live coverage or not at all. I don’t care if it’s weekend or weekday – middle of the night or high noon – I just want my Wimbledon in real time.
Since I’m not a lawyer for NBC or Wimbledon (or at all) I’m not going to tell them how to renegotiate a contract. I’d probably mess it up and then you’d be leaving comments about that too
Good luck!
http://channelsurfing.net/watch-wimbledon.html
Thanks for this website. I usually am in Canada during Wimbledon at a family cottage where we watch Wimbledon live all week. This week I am in the US…how disappointing. I never thought I would enjoy tennis on the radio as much as I have this week thanks to the Brits. I agree with the above comments that if another sport were tape delayed there would be mutiny. I will watch the finals on NBC but then I will choose not to watch anything on NBC for along time.
Preach on girlfriend. Preach on.
Hi Gail! Your cottage isn’t on McGregor Lake, is it? I have family friends with a cottage there and I spent many summer weekends there as a kid!
I hope you will email Wimbledon and nbc for us. Every little bit helps.
Thank Heavens someone is complaining about this!! How many of us were taught the basic premise of what comprises a monopoly in Econ 101? NBC keeps ESPN from showing live coverage for more than 3 hours, but then does not continue the coverage themselves. Instead they are still – almost an hour and a half after the completion of the Roddick/Murray match – showing the start of the 4th set of that match. Seriously? What country is this? What year is this? My family has been in broadcasting for years and the easiest way to get their rights taken away is complain to the FCC about the fact that NBC blatantly titles their coverage both on TV and online as “Wimbledon LIVE Simulcast.” It’s misrepresentation. GO TO FCC.ORG, SCROLL ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE LEFT TO ‘COMPLAINTS’ AND FILE ONE ONLINE.
Wow, Meg! Thanks so much for this.
It’s true – their TV schedule says “live.” But it isn’t.
I’m filing my complaint.
You’re more than welcome. Please tell others to do the same. The FCC has far more control over this than does Wimbledon as they do not respond to commercial interest or concerns, but rather only the fairness or lack thereof to the end consumer.
It is frustrating. I have signed the petition. Also I have listened to several matches on the radio link at RG and WMB. It is surprisingly satisfying – good commentary. When the tape delay is broadcast later on NBC for example, it is less interesting as the outcome is known.
I think it is time to provide better coverage, ie live broadcasts, for tennis in USA.