The four tennis ‘grand slams’ are iconic global sports competitions and, as proven by the 2017 Australian Open, capable of drawing blockbuster audiences. Roger Federer’s victory over Rafael Nadal brought Eurosport its largest-ever audience for a tennis match with 20.7 million viewers across Europe, while in the host country, the 3.6-million (4.4-million peak) figure was the highest audience for the final in over a decade.
The prestige and image attached to grand slam tennis is not lost on the sport’s broadcast partners. For domestic broadcasters this has led to a continuous fee increase for the quartet of slams. Using Sportcal’s Revenue Dashboard – available to subscribers of the Media Intelligence Centre – to analyse the domestic revenue generated, Sportcal Insight examines how the grand slams have enhanced their domestic rights revenues. Currency conversions, where possible, have been done at the time of the deal and modelled data has been used for incremental rises during a rights agreement.
All grand slams have long-running domestic deals with established broadcasters. This, it can be argued, limits competition and the potential for mushrooming revenues, resulting in a more modest rise than might otherwise be the case.
In Australia, free-to-air network Seven’s most recent deal with Tennis Australia is under investigation by the country’s corporate watchdog because a competitive bidding process wasn’t launched, amid claims that the governing body could have raised an extra A$50 million ($45 million) had the rights been taken to the open market.
The 2017 women’s Australian Open final attracted 360,000 more viewers than the final of T20 cricket’s Big Bash League (aired on another free-to-air broadcaster, Network Ten, at the same time). Although the popular cricket competition runs for more than two weeks, the Australian Open currently brings in higher domestic rights fees, and that gap has widened since its 2015 renewal.
Comparing the domestic media revenue of the four slams (US dollars) shows how Tennis Australia’s new deal pushed the tournament ahead of the French Open at Roland Garros. As highlighted by the modelled incremental data above, there was only a small increase in average annual fees when France Télévisions and Eurosport’s new cycle began in 2014, rising from €15.5 million ($22.9 million) to €17.5 million. This has duly been extended through to 2020, with Jérémy Botton, ex-managing director of the French Tennis
Wimbledon and the US Open can both boast higher revenues and longer-term future broadcast agreements. In the UK, the BBC has secured renewals with the All England Lawn Tennis Club for Wimbledon through to 2024, while the US Open has an 11-year deal in place with ESPN to 2025. In the competitive UK media rights market, the BBC relinquished its exclusivity for the 2016 tournament following Eurosport’s deal for highlights and simulcast rights to the finals, but the public-service broadcaster has retained coverage of the whole tournament.
While the BBC now shares rugby union’s Six Nations Championship with ITV and golf’s Open Championship has been lost to pay-TV behemoth Sky, following swingeing cuts at the BBC, its commitment to paying £60 million ($93 million) per year from 2018 underlines the importance of Wimbledon in the broadcaster’s dwindling sports portfolio.
The modest rights fee rises secured across the grand slams can also be attributed to listed events legislation in the home markets of the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon, preventing competition from pay-TV operators for exclusive rights. Eurosport has pursued the Wimbledon rights in the UK, but is limited to non-exclusive output given that UK legislation insists on free-to-air coverage of the men's and women's finals (pay-TV coverage of other matches is only permitted if there is also delayed or highlights coverage on free-to-air TV). Similarly, the men’s and women’s finals at Roland Garros must be shown on free-to-air television in France, while anti-siphoning rules prevent the Australian Open from being broadcast exclusively by a pay-TV operator domestically.
The US Open’s $825-million agreement affords ESPN exclusive rights and increases the average annual domestic revenue figure from just over $50 million between 2012 and 2014, to $75 million from 2015 onwards, a significant jump from the modest increase over the 2011 rights cycle.
However, the declining number of ESPN subscribers is sure to concern the US Tennis Association. ESPN is still widely available in USA in around 80 per cent of television households, but doesn’t have the blanket domestic coverage enjoyed by the other grand slams with free-to-air partners. With ESPN losing over 7 million subscribers since 2011 as the media landscape shifts towards online services and ‘skinny bundles’ to match viewing habits, questions continue to hover with respect to the nature of the linear TV market by 2025 and how ESPN will adapt.
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