At the conclusion of today's final day of Wimbledon coverage on NBC, the on-air staff - Ted Robinson, Jimmy Roberts, John McEnroe, and Mary Carillo - sat in the studio and discussed some of their favorite Wimbledon memories. Carillo mentioned how the explosion of popularity for McEnroe and other American stars in the late seventies led NBC to institute "Breakfast at Wimbledon" - live coverage of the Gentlemen's and Ladies' finals on Saturday and Sunday mornings - a feature which is now in its 33rd year.
Then Ted Robinson turned to the camera and said: "And so, right, Mary, a significant moment for tennis. We've enjoyed so many championships, champions, and great matches here. And now, we at NBC say goodbye to the All England Club after a 43-year partnership and thank them for a lifetime of memories." And that's all they said on the matter. Cue the closing credits. A web search turned up more information, from the Twitter feed of CNBC sports business reporter Darren Rovell (http://twitter.com/#!/darrenrovell). Some of his tweets today: NBC has announced it has lost out on future Wimbledon rights: "We are proud of our 43-year partnership with the All England Club & while we would have liked to have continued our relationship, we were simply outbid." 1 hour ago Sports Business Journal's @Ourand_SBJ <http://twitter.com/Ourand_SBJ>reports that ABC/ESPN is expected to get full Wimbledon US broadcast rights <http://twitter.com/#%21/darrenrovell/status/87623818276896769><http://twitter.com/#%21/darrenrovell/status/87623818276896769>1 hour ago Main hangup with NBC & Wimbledon? They wanted NBC or rights holder to broadcast every match live by 2014. 1 hour ago Every1 can slam NBC for the idea of tape delay, but the bottom line is putting matches on at better times makes networks more $ 1 hour ago I'm not advocating for tape delay, just saying ESPN couldn't give a good bid for the Olympics because they knew they couldn't make $ live 1 hour ago Before you slam tape delay, learn the economics of it. Better times = higher ad rates = greater ability to pay bigger rts fee 1 hour ago Bad game of telephone. NBC told the All England Club they would be willing to GET RID of all tape delay by 2014. 1 hour ago -Tim (A non-cable user who hopes some of the matches end up on ABC) -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
