Wimbledon coverage

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Discussion

oddball1313

Original Poster:

1,178 posts

122 months

Wednesday 12th July 2017
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Just watching BBC breakfast and again having to go through another segment on Wimbledon as they have evey done day for the last week or so. Good luck to Murray etc but does it justify the exposure it gets ?
I only know one person who plays the sport and I can't recall a single conversation I've had with someone talking about a game or even the sport in general. Just as a comparison cycling (a sport loads of people I know participate in either for fitness or just recreationally) gets virtually zero coverage. I appreciate that its a UK hosted event but it just seems a little strange how much coverage it gets when vey few people in reality seem to be bothered about it. Maybe i'm way off the mark and loads of people enjoy watching it, i just dont seem to know any of them.

Roofless Toothless

5,610 posts

131 months

Wednesday 12th July 2017
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UK hosted?

I think you will find it is hosted by the All England Tennis Club. Which makes all the fuss about Murray being a 'home champion' a bit inaccurate!

sc0tt

18,032 posts

200 months

Wednesday 12th July 2017
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I love Wimbledon, see it as a bit of british tradition. Sport hosted on home grounds and all that.

Alucidnation

16,810 posts

169 months

Wednesday 12th July 2017
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Do you follow football OP?

Frank7

6,619 posts

86 months

Wednesday 12th July 2017
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oddball1313 said:
Just watching BBC breakfast and again having to go through another segment on Wimbledon as they have evey done day for the last week or so. Good luck to Murray etc but does it justify the exposure it gets ?
I only know one person who plays the sport and I can't recall a single conversation I've had with someone talking about a game or even the sport in general. Just as a comparison cycling (a sport loads of people I know participate in either for fitness or just recreationally) gets virtually zero coverage. I appreciate that its a UK hosted event but it just seems a little strange how much coverage it gets when vey few people in reality seem to be bothered about it. Maybe i'm way off the mark and loads of people enjoy watching it, i just dont seem to know any of them.
Pretty much my sentiments, I find tennis roughly on a par with cricket, which just makes my eyes glaze over as I scramble for the remote if I accidentally come across it on T.V.
In retrospect, tennis is probably not as boring as cricket, but it does nothing for me.
Still, that's just me, if others like it, good luck to them, I hope that they enjoy it, cricket too.
Conversely, if I'm in New York City between October and April, I do my utmost to catch the Rangers playing ice hockey at Madison Square Gardens, fast moving and exciting, but it no doubt leaves British tennis fans cold, (pun unintended).
Chacun à son goût.

languagetimothy

1,075 posts

161 months

Wednesday 12th July 2017
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OP it's a major sport and a lot of people watch and play it. I'm a reasonable club player and play four or five times every week. There are pro tournaments taking place most of the year, but apart from Wimbledon and Queens, year end finals,and a small bit of the French, fans don't get much too coverage unless you have Sky.
I'm sure the BBC wouldn't cover as heavily if there wasn't the fan base.

I went to the men's semi final last year, federer/raonic murray/berdych. What an atmosphere.
Thousands of people dead quite, then in full shouting mode. I attend when I can and And have been a few times to queens and atp finals at the O2 too.
It's a great individual sport where everyone is an athlete with the same equipment, and equal chances, just like F1...... oh... hang on a minute

AyBee

10,522 posts

201 months

Wednesday 12th July 2017
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Conversely - most people in my office enjoy having it on in the background during the day. Next!

skilly1

2,700 posts

194 months

Wednesday 12th July 2017
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Much better than the horrendous football that covers our screen and news all year round.

Zetec-S

5,832 posts

92 months

Wednesday 12th July 2017
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oddball1313 said:
Just as a comparison cycling (a sport loads of people I know participate in either for fitness or just recreationally) gets virtually zero coverage.
Eurosport/ITV3 or 4? tends to have reasonably coverage, but the trouble is cycling is fairly boring as a spectator sport. I sometimes watch some road cycling and am quite happy to watch the scenery go by, but you can pretty much fast forward to the end and not miss much action. Plus if you don't understand it then it you have no idea what's going on. Same with mountain biking/bmx/etc. Plus other than Chris Frome there are no household names for the non-enthusiast (ignoring those which crop up for a couple of weeks every 4 years wink).

Tennis on the other hand is comparatively easy to understand, so even if you don't play or only have a casual interest you can figure out what's going on. And it tends to have more year round press coverage so more easily recognisable names.

Saying that, British tennis is on a high at the moment, if that were to change and the partisan crowd had no serious contender to cheer on then I imagine coverage would be scaled back slightly.

Puggit

48,354 posts

247 months

Wednesday 12th July 2017
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skilly1 said:
Much better than the horrendous football that covers our screen and news all year round.
But it doesn't any more, unless you're paying for Sky/BT.

Puggit

48,354 posts

247 months

Wednesday 12th July 2017
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Wimbledon is about the only sport which BBC still has the rights to - of course they're going to trumpet it.

oddball1313

Original Poster:

1,178 posts

122 months

Wednesday 12th July 2017
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It's not that I think the Tour de France should be on instead (I know it's on Eurosport & ITV4 and enjoy the highlights) but I just think the BBC coverage seems a little OTT given what I perceive to be a minimally participated sport in this country at least. If I'm wrong then happy to be corrected.

Not into watching cricket, F1, football or Rugby either what it's worth.

amare32

2,417 posts

222 months

Wednesday 12th July 2017
quotequote all
oddball1313 said:
Just watching BBC breakfast and again having to go through another segment on Wimbledon as they have evey done day for the last week or so. Good luck to Murray etc but does it justify the exposure it gets ?
I only know one person who plays the sport and I can't recall a single conversation I've had with someone talking about a game or even the sport in general. Just as a comparison cycling (a sport loads of people I know participate in either for fitness or just recreationally) gets virtually zero coverage. I appreciate that its a UK hosted event but it just seems a little strange how much coverage it gets when vey few people in reality seem to be bothered about it. Maybe i'm way off the mark and loads of people enjoy watching it, i just dont seem to know any of them.
I play tennis a lot and run in the same circle of people who watch and play it a lot.

Wimbledon like the Olympics is one of the premier events left on the BBC so it's a big thing.

Although tennis matches can run on for 2-3 hours in slams, cycling events like the Tour de France run even longer so it's taking a lot of airtime.

generationx

6,644 posts

104 months

Wednesday 12th July 2017
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Puggit said:
Wimbledon is about the only sport which BBC still has the rights to - of course they're going to trumpet it.
This is wise

WolfieBot

2,111 posts

186 months

Wednesday 12th July 2017
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languagetimothy said:
OP it's a major sport and a lot of people watch and play it. I'm a reasonable club player and play four or five times every week. There are pro tournaments taking place most of the year, but apart from Wimbledon and Queens, year end finals,and a small bit of the French, fans don't get much too coverage unless you have Sky.
I'm sure the BBC wouldn't cover as heavily if there wasn't the fan base.
Whilst that's true and if they were showing games then I'd understand.

But during this morning's breakfast show the biggest highlight they seemed to be able to show was a guy getting stuck in a rain poncho!

That's hardly a newsworthy item that people need a summary of in the morning.

K50 DEL

9,227 posts

227 months

Wednesday 12th July 2017
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skilly1 said:
Much better than the horrendous football that covers our screen and news all year round.
Couldn't agree more... one of my favourite times of year this, I only wish that Wimbledon and the TdF didn't clash as I really struggle to know which to watch!
It's also the main topic of conversation around my office this week and the first time the TV in our kitchen has been turned on in months!

filthypig

233 posts

85 months

Wednesday 12th July 2017
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oddball1313 said:
what I perceive to be a minimally participated sport in this country at least. If I'm wrong then happy to be corrected.
A quick google shows a Sports England stats page reporting circa 400,000 playing tennis on an at least a once a week basis in the UK in 2015-16. Not sure that fits in with your belief of it being a minimally participated sport? Football has 1.8M people per week playing for comparison.

I like Wimbledon. The coverage is superb imo alongside the great insight given by the decent commentators and presenters they have covering the championship.

Hoofy

76,253 posts

281 months

Wednesday 12th July 2017
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It's only for two weeks isn't it? And there are loads of other channels. I'm no fan of the world's most tedious sport (cycling) but I don't begrudge them putting it on the TV when it's the TdF etc. Or the London Marathon.

I'm big into tennis now but when I wasn't about 3 years ago, I didn't care that it was on TV.

TwigtheWonderkid

43,248 posts

149 months

Wednesday 12th July 2017
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I'm not much of a tennis fan, but other channels are available plus there's an OFF button, so live and let live.

oddball1313

Original Poster:

1,178 posts

122 months

Wednesday 12th July 2017
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I'm not a frothing stage on this subject, and don't feel that strong about it at 7:00 to start channel surfing, I was just interested in whether the amount of airtime it gets is justified in terms of the number of people who are actually bothered.