How Wimbledon Balances Heritage and Innovation

I guess for you guys, like what's shifted, I guess, for a lot of fans over the last couple of years? So, you know, you've worked with the BBC for...

Do we know the number? It's

almost 100 years.

I think it's the oldest broadcasting partnership in sport, I

think.

I believe it.

So I guess that has evolved so much, of course, over 100 years.

But I guess a lot over the last few years as well.

And I guess there's such a broad audience that engages with Wimbledon across from attending, but also watching online and so on and so forth.

So I guess from that experience perspective, how has that changed or what are you finding that Wimbledon has to do to be able to engage with those different audiences and I guess give them the type of championship that they want to see and to attend?

Yeah, I think it's really interesting because I think actually the way that the overall media landscape has changed has created so many amazing opportunities for us.

If you think back 30 years, essentially in the UK pretty much, maybe slightly more than 30 years, you had effectively one touchpoint, right? And that was broadcast.

So you had only one way of being able to communicate your brand and what the event is about to the whole country.

And that's an extremely diverse country, right? Like you're talking about all manner of different people, different walks of life.

Now, obviously, that's changed and we've got a lot more direct ways to talk to people, either through our own platforms or through operated platforms that allows us to be able to make sure that we can bring that kind of magic of Wimbledon to people in a way which is really relevant to them.

And that's just in the UK, but obviously we are a global brand.

I think it's over 700 million, almost 750 million people engage with Wimbledon in some way, shape or form during the championships and the window around it.

That is an extraordinary number.

So we have to rely on some of those local experts, some of the market experts to make sure that they are delivering the core essence of Wimbledon, but they're delivering it in a way which is relevant to those audiences wherever they are around the world and however they're engaging.

And, you know, you do have to lean on that.

And we've got amazing broadcast partnerships.

You've mentioned the BBC, ESPN in the US, various others all around the world that are longstanding partnerships.

Well, we don't tend to do short term at Wimbledon.

You know, we like to make sure that we've built that trust, that we will understand what Wimbledon is all about.

And that then allows us to be able to bring that to people in a really authentic way that's also relevant to them.