LIVE PRODUCTION
Fond farewell
Barker has presented Wimbledon for thirty years having played it for a decade (she made it to the semi-finals in 1977).
“I don’t think there’s a presenter who has a relationship with a sporting event that you could compare with Sue Barker and Wimbledon,” says Chakraborty. “It was a bit of a military operation because being a modest soul, she didn’t want anything done at all.”
BBC Sport and WBS pulled John McEnroe out of the ESPN booth straight after the mens’ final in time to put his BBC pundit cap on to say goodbye, tracking him through the crowds as he made his way to BBC’s live broadcast platform, with Henman Hill and Centre Court as backdrops in the late afternoon sun.
“You see it so rarely in sport and in broadcasting, people going out when
they’re still at the absolute peak of their form,” Chakraborty notes. “The tennis was brilliant again this year but there’s only going to be one year that Sue stands down.”
THE SAME TIME COVERING IT IN A REALLY MODERN WAY
OF ALL THE GREAT HISTORY OF WIMBLEDON WHILE AT
IT WAS A GREAT EXAMPLE
Also unique to 2022 was the ceremony to mark the centenary of the world famous Centre Court, hosted by BBC broadcasters Barker, McEnroe and Clare
Balding, and featuring 26 former champions including Bjorn Borg, Roger Federer, Billie Jean-King and Venus Williams.
Innovation at its centre
“There was fantastic drone footage whizzing around centre court and through the corridors of the club. It was a great example of all the great history of Wimbledon while at the same time covering it in a really modern way,” says Chakraborty.
WBS, who first partnered with the BBC in 2019 to deliver the tournament to television
screens, is responsible for innovations including drone use (not for live match coverage) and wire cam which was extended this year to cover more ground.
“Those innovations offer wonderful shots around the tennis but also help our openings and deliver the sense of scale of Wimbledon,” says Chakraborty.
The live streaming of the 18 Championship courts comes from Salford and the BBC remains the tournament’s main broadcast partner.
“We have the rights up until 2027, which will be 100 years of the BBC covering Wimbledon. That is undoubtedly a unique rights holder sporting event relationship. We look forward to marking that in a very special way when the time comes.”
BBC Sport and WBS have form: They won the Televisual Bulldog in 2019 too. And this year, they also won Best in Show, collecting the most votes of any of the Bulldog winners in their categories.
televisual.com 15 BD
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