NBC aired tape delayed coverage of the Wimbledon women's and men's semifinals Thursday and Friday, and it is a "mystery" why NBCUniversal, "now with so many platforms, can't find a place for live tennis other than on 'big' NBC," according to Jon Wertheim of SI.com. The Wimbledon contract is "up for grabs," and NBC reportedly "could be out of it entirely." Wertheim wrote, "I have to believe that, if NBC stays, one of the preconditions would be live broadcasts" (SI.com, 6/30). Thursday's Maria Sharapova-Sabine Lisicki semifinal was one of the matches NBC aired on tape delay, and NEWSDAY'S Neil Best wrote under the header, "Why Wasn't Sharapova On Live?" There are "only two ways out of this regularly occurring mess." NBC could "stop worrying about 'Today,' swallow the short-term ratings hit and show the darn tennis tournament live," or it could "let ESPN2 show both semifinals live" (NEWSDAY.com, 6/30).
TRIPLE BREAK POINT: ESPN 3D aired Friday's Novak Djokovic-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga semifinal match live, the first tennis programming to appear on the net. ESPN 3D early Saturday morning will air the second semifinal match, Rafael Nadal-Andy Murray, on tape delay. The net also will air the men's and women's finals on Monday (ESPN). Meanwhile, in London, Matt Warman notes the Wimbledon men's semifinals and the women's and men's finals mark the BBC's "first ever mainstream 3D programmes." The 3D broadcasts are airing on the BBC HD channel. Fewer than 200,000 3D sets have been sold in the U.K., but if "ever there was a sport that could change that ... it's tennis." Warman: "Not because of the unique appeal of Wimbledon, but rather because, in fact, it is the only sport whose coverage is fundamentally altered for the better by the introduction of 3D" (London TELEGRAPH, 7/1).
NOT TELLING THE WHOLE STORY: In N.Y., Phil Mushnick writes "we all love" broadcaster Dick Enberg, "doubly so as he calls his last Wimbledon" for ESPN. But for Enberg to "frame Serena Williams as the always-gracious princess of tennis, when there's so much evidence to the contrary, isn't merely pandering; it's insulting" (N.Y. POST, 7/1).
