Q&A: John Rowlinson, Director of Television, All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club - May 2005  

John Rowlinson is Director of Television the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, home of the Grand Slam Wimbledon Tennis Championship. He spoke to S&T about his role in broadcasting the crown jewel event, which takes place again next month. Rowlinson's career in television has spanned over 30 years. He spent the majority of his career working in the BBC TV Sports Department. He has had wide experience of programme making including the Olympic Games and negotiation of international television rights and was responsible for the BBC's coverage of The Championships for nine years.

Which major broadcasters will be involved in Wimbledon this year?

“The BBC is the host broadcaster, with nearly 60 cameras in all, but their coverage is owned by the Club and sold around the world. With TWI we produce a European feed of all televised courts, and a dedicated interview channel, as well as a world feed. The Broadcast Centre at the All England Club is permanent and includes 18 studios, and the likes of NBC, ESPN Star, NHK, and Channel 9 Australia can do their own mix here and then send them to their own countries, which works out well for them financially. The market for tennis in certain countries has gone down quite a bit. Germany used to fund international tennis, but that's disappeared. There are still pockets where tennis is very hot - such as Belgium. But in France, Spain and Italy, tennis is only shown on cable or satellite.”

What will be new in terms of coverage this year?

“New this year will be the coverage from a ninth court and possibly a blimp camera. A problem is always going to be satisfying the bulk of your broadcasters, especially during the first week of the tournament. Broadcasters always want to see the players from their own countries. The head referee, Alan Mills, has the absolute say in terms of scheduling. He has the devil's own job, especially when it rains. All I do is act as a funnel for a lot of requests.”

You attended the SportelAsia market in Hong Kong back in March. How did that market go for you?

“It was good to meet the broadcasters out there and see what they want from us. Meanwhile, back here, most of the European broadcasters have already extended their contracts with us until 2007.”

How is new media being fitted into the Wimbledon mix?

“ESPN in particular has taken up a lot of its new media rights and is very much into broadband delivery. Given a choice, we would always rather work with the broadcaster than against them - i.e. while the market is still finding its feet in the new media space, it's better to let the rights owners look after the new media rights themselves. The BBC's interactive coverage is first class - I can't think of any other grand slams with this level of interactivity. Meanwhile, IBM makes the official website work fantastically and TWI is behind the marketing.”

Will you ever sell new media rights separately?

“Our website should be complementary to the television coverage. If the website spreads its wings and becomes stronger, then that's all well and good. But at the moment we are committed to working with our broadcast partners and letting them exploit new media in their own way. We don't want to be in a position where we get £20,000 for new media rights, but then lose £20,000 from the television rights. Broadband becomes useful where terrestrial broadcasters can't schedule a game after a certain time. It is just a different medium of broadcasting after all. On the mobile side, we did a deal with 3 last year, and will probably do other mobile deals this year.”

How will the new roof over Centre Court affect broadcasting of the tournament?

“The new roof over Centre Court will definitely be in place by 2009. The roof can be shut immediately if it starts raining, but as slippery grass is dangerous, warm air will be pumped into the court until it is dry. At the moment we reckon it will take 25 minutes after rain stops play for it to resume again. As well as adding the roof, existing seats at the venue will be made wider, as well as around 2,000 new ones added. It's a wonderful little theatre, which is why we don't want to increase the capacity too much. The US Open stadium is huge for example and spectators can feel like they are watching two ants play a game of tennis. Their atmosphere is more raucous but we want Centre Court to remain a small, intimate venue.”

Credit: Empics

“A lot of time, it is like servicing the Forth Bridge. There is always a contract to be negotiated and there's a lot of client servicing to be done. We work very closely with the BBC and in March, many foreign broadcasters come over to view their studio and work out where their commentary positions will be. There's a lot of planning involved. The BBC provides most of the production facilities such as editing and unilateral playout, then TWI handles the feed from the venue and it is routed through BT Centre.”

Do you attend the other tennis Grand Slam events in order to learn how they service their events?

“I went to the US and French Opens last year. We are slightly different in that the All England Club is not the governing body for the event. Instead, we work with the Lawn Tennis Association for two weeks of the year as a joint venture on the championships. For the other 50 weeks of the year, we operate as a club. Wimbledon has provided £300m over 10 years to British tennis.”

Finally, are there any new developments you are pleased with at the All England Club?

“It's important that we now own the post-war television archive for Wimbledon. The BBC can exploit it in the UK, but it belongs to us. We are working on some of the pre-war archive. In terms of still images, we don't own all pictures outright, but are taking steps to address that. If you are in the rights business, it is important to own all your assets yourself.”

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