IMG Rejects Offer From ARD, ZDF For 2014 Wimbledon Broadcast Rights

IMG "has rejected an offer from German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF for Wimbledon broadcast rights," according to Manuel Weis of QUOTENMETER. More than three months after German tennis player Sabine Lisicki surprisingly reached the Wimbledon women's final, "it is still unclear who will air Wimbledon live in Germany in '14." Back in July, ARD Sports Dir Axel Balkausky said that the channel "would try to acquire a little TV package for Wimbledon." But this plan "seems to have reportedly failed." Still in the race for the German Wimbledon rights "is pay-TV network Sky, which has exclusively aired the tournament since '11." There are also speculations that media group ProSiebenSat.1 "is interested in the rights." Free-to-air TV channel Sat.1 Gold is currently being transformed into a tennis channel, and next year sports pay-TV channel ran+ is expected to be launched (QUOTENMETER, 10/21).