Boris Becker - harsh criticism of ARD and ZDF
The three-time Wimbledon winner sees a complicity in public television that, despite great success, there is no tennis boom in Germany.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Apr 05, 2019, 04:16 pm
Angelique Kerber is a three-time major winner, Alexander Zverev won the ATP final in London last year. The conditions for a new boom in Germany are actually there. If it weren't for the situation with TV rights. At least that's Boris Becker's assessment.
"As long as a third division football game is better broadcast live on public television than a Wimbledon final - that will not change much. No other sport has a chance there, ”said Becker in an interview with the Stuttgarter Nachrichten.
TV rights with Sky and Discovery
In fact, TV rights for Wimbledon have been with Sky for a number of years, those for the three other Grand Slam tournaments with Discovery, to whose broadcaster Eurosport belongs - and where Boris Becker also acts as an expert.
Last year, ZDF secured sub-licenses for the Wimbledon final between Angelique Kerber and Serena Williams - but then faced a very tennis-specific problem: Kerber had to continue the men's semi-final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic on Saturday and Williams were unable to start at the scheduled start time. So TV viewers didn't know when the final would begin.
Insignificant football beats big tennis
2.28 million fans then had the greatest success in Angelique Kerber's career. However, this was only a little more than a quarter of the rate of the simultaneous, though insignificant third place match between England and Belgium at the World Cup in Russia.
The difficult planning in tennis and the lack of slots in the full TV programs are probably the main arguments why white sport is better off in specialty channels like Sky and Eurosport or in streaming portals like DAZN. Best example? The recently completed tournament in Miami, in which the weather was a rip off for those in charge as well as for players. the semi-final between Ashleigh Barty and Anett Kontaveit dragged on for more than six hours, even if in the end it was a mean 6: 3 and 6: 3 for the later winner Barty. DAZN was there from the first to the last rally. The same theater for men, where the broadcast times at Sky have expanded significantly compared to the planning. Unthinkable on public television.
RTL afternoons with Boris Becker
With covered courts at all Grand Slam tournaments, with the exception of Paris, the weather factor would no longer be decisive. At least in the late phase of the majors.
But the times when RTL spent whole afternoons clearing for Boris Becker in Wimbledon won't come back anytime soon. The private broadcasters now have to look closely at their earnings, a Wimbledon match of several hours like the one between Nadal and Djokovic 2018, which has also dragged on for two days, would throw the entire program schedule over the counter. In Austria, after all, ServusTV will broadcast some top games from Dominic Thiem during the clay court season.