TSN is now the exclusive Canadian home of complete coverage of all four tennis Grand Slams. Today they signed a new 9 year deal that will see exclusive coverage of The Championships, Wimbledon air on TSN and TSN2 beginning next year. Previously Global Television had aired the ladies and gentlemen’s championship matches. This marks the second deal TSN has signed with a tennis Grand Slam this year, the first was in May when they re-newed their deal with the Roland Garros Championships. The deal is part of a new agreement between The All England Lawn Tennis Club and ESPN. Details on that agreement follow.
ESPN confirmed its new broadcast rights deal with The Championships, Wimbledon this morning. The deal sees the exit of NBC’s coverage, including Breakfast at Wimbledon. As a result of the deal, coverage from the round of 16 through the men’s quarterfinals on Wednesday will air simultaneously on ESPN and ESPN2 to provide fans with double the coverage of past years. TSN and TSN2 could make a similar arrangement here in Canada. It will allow viewers from coast to coast the ability to watch double the amount of matches that were previously available when ESPN2 and NBC split coverage. ESPN will show the semi finals and finals, giving them a higher profile. ABC will also have a 3-hour highlights program on the middle Sunday and they will re-air both finals at 3pm ET on the day they are played.
I’ll have more information from TSN later. For now here are quotes from the All England Club and ESPN. First up, Ian Ritchie, Chief Executive of the All England Lawn Tennis Club
“We are delighted to be extending our partnership with ESPN, in a move which will consolidate our U.S. media rights under the auspices of a single partner. This new agreement will bring increased live coverage of The Championships and ensure that the huge international audience for Wimbledon can now enjoy all the drama and colour of the Fortnight through a sustained narrative delivered with clarity, continuity and consistency across a wide range of platforms.
And from George Bodenheimer, President of ESPN and ABC Sports
We are proud to have been a partner of The All England Club the past nine years and are thrilled to be given continuing responsibility for honoring Wimbledon’s rich tradition. Over the next 12 years, we’ll work closely together to move coverage of this great event forward with live coverage on television and using all the latest technologies and screens.
A Rouge Point 
But, but, but what will happen when Wimbleton runs up against the 5 hours of live coverage of “Free Agent Frenzy” ?. Oh yes, the ole tape delay routine for tennis.
Huh? TSN aired Wimbledon live this past Friday on the main network and put Free Agent Frenzy on TSN2. I don’t see your point at all.
Do you think TSN will put the Wimbledon finals on CTV? I also wonder why they don’t do that for the Grey Cup as well as World Junior games. Are they allowed to do that? Or do they keep it on TSN so they might get more subscribers?
You hit it bang on with your last point. That’s probably 3/4s of the reason why ESPN was able to out-bid NBC for US rights too. There really is no reason to put those events on CTV. They do very good on TSN and the ratings have shown that events do almost as good on TSN as they do on CBC.
TSN didn’t put the US Open or French finals on CTV in the past, and they could simulcast those with the US network. No reason why they would for WImbledon.
I think part of the issue is ctv has a jam packed line up as it is durring the summer sure they could put some cfl games on but in the fall and winter it just would not be possible.
I think it has more to do with TSN than CTV. If TSN wanted games OTA, I think they’d sell a package to CBC (and even give them the Grey Cup every other year) and make some money off them. That’s what they did in the past (except giving CBC all playoff games).