The Tennis Podcast will broadcast coverage of this year’s Wimbledon tournament live on YouTube for the first time, the hosts have announced, as part of a new partnership with the competition’s organisers.
The podcast produces daily shows throughout the course of Wimbledon - as well as the three other Grand Slam tournaments - but has previously been audio-only. However, in collaboration with the All England Club, the podcast’s daily coverage will now be live-streamed on The Tennis Podcast YouTube Channel, starting from 30 June following the competition’s initial draw. This footage will then be converted into audio format and broadcast as normal.
“We are delighted to be partnering with The Tennis Podcast who have been engaging tennis fans on a global level,” said Paul Davies, head of broadcast, production and media rights at Wimbledon. “The team have created a compelling, entertaining, and informative format, and we are excited to see how they apply their unique style to The Championships.”
“We will have the All England Club as a backdrop, be able to soak up the action on-site as usual, and hopefully welcome one or two guests along the way,” said co-host David Law. “Most importantly to us, nothing will change, aside from an additional visual option for those that want to watch the show live rather than wait to listen. We’ll still be reviewing the day, previewing the next day, and talking about what we’ve seen and heard.”
Law spoke to PodPod about the team’s desire to leverage the power of video formats as part of an episode earlier this year, but noted that he found it hard to overcome his view of podcasting as primarily an audio medium.
“Honestly, we're probably a few years late with this, 10 years in, but we're just about starting to realise that that would probably be a good idea,” he said. “Look, I'm quite a traditionalist when it comes to podcasts… I find it quite hard to get away from the idea of this being an audio medium - to me, it's the appeal of it. It's the attraction of it. And it's the flexibility of it; the fact that I can say all the stuff that we do, whether we're on the road, we're in a car, and we're stumbling out, and we're still recording… I don't think we could do that on camera.”
“But at the same time, I am aware of the power of YouTube and visual sharing and all that sort of thing. So we need to come up with something that will fulfil that goal as well. But I can't get away from the fact that the reason those that contact us every day do so, is because we're in their ears and because their imagination gets to play a part in that experience, and I think you do lose something being on camera as a result of that. But we're trying to try to do both.”
