Yesterday's match is up big from last year, when Djokovic's win over Kevin Anderson drew a 0.9GETTY IMAGES
ESPN drew a 2.6 overnight rating yesterday for Novak Djokovic’s five-set win over Roger Federer in the Wimbledon championship, marking the best figure for the men's final since ’12, when Federer beat Andy Murray in four sets (3.1). This year also is up from a 0.9 last year for Djokovic’s straight-sets win over Kevin Anderson, which was the lowest figure for ESPN since it acquired Wimbledon rights in ’12. That match last year also went up against the France-Croatia FIFA World Cup final. Two years ago, ESPN drew a 1.1 overnight for Federer’s straight-sets win over Marin Cilic. Yesterday’s Djokovic-Federer match peaked at a 4.6 rating during the conclusion of the match, which marked the longest men’s final in Wimbledon history (4 hours, 57 minutes). For the entire Wimbledon event (two weeks for men and women), ESPN saw overnights rise from a 0.7 last year to a 0.9 this year (Austin Karp, THE DAILY). ESPN’s Mike Greenberg said it felt like the "entire world was watching" Djokovic-Federer, especially "if you were following on Twitter.” ESPN’s Bobby Carpenter said, “This was must-see TV, especially for a guy that's 37-years-old in Roger Federer, to see how much he had left. … This was absolutely compelling to watch them go at it.” ESPN’s Ryen Russillo: “What I loved was seeing how different social media plays out when it's a tennis final versus the NBA Playoffs” (“Get Up,” ESPN, 7/15).
BLAST FROM THE PAST: DIGIDAY's Seb Joseph notes Wimbledon is "turning to the event's past matches" to "help secure future revenues." The tournament "wants to use its archive footage to reach new fans and win over more sponsors." Wimbledon officials "stretched out the activation period" for the tournament from two weeks to six. Once the French Open ended on July 9, promotions for the Wimbledon "ran on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and, for the first time this year, the popular short-form video network TikTok." As part of the extended six-week campaign, the tournament "created an immersive, theatrical recreation" of the '80 final between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe. The first recreation of the tournament was "more marketing stunt than commercial move." But should the content "prove successful," the plan for next year is to "take the experiential part to other markets and sell it to one of the broadcasters that already show the tournament." While TV will be "where the bulk of revenue comes from if the plan works," Wimbledon officials also "see scope to grow revenue from digital platforms, particularly if some of the content for the recreated match is shown online, and essentially create new inventory for the tournament to monetize" (DIGIDAY.com, 7/15).
