Page 195 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

184 • Sport, Media and Society

as a reconstructed Victorian sitting room with a tennis racquet–themed tea service,
toast rack and sugar tongs.

Museum, Media, Tennis

The mediation of tennis was a repeated motif throughout the museum, including a
display titled ‘What’s the Picture’, featuring press photographs from 1924 onwards;
a historical display of camera equipment from the 1930s to the 1970s; and an interac-
tive display, where visitors could select and watch televised scenes from Wimbledon

finals. John McEnroe, the notorious tennis player turned television commentator,
appeared as a hologram discussing the game in the changing room that he once
used. ‘On the Circuit’ featured a tunnel of overlapping still and moving images of
contemporary professional tennis capturing the pace, intensity and emotion of medi-
ated sport.
The Wimbledon tour and Museum incorporate the many facets of what has be-
come the highly successful brand of Wimbledon. Nostalgia, tradition and English
manners are incorporated into a globalised media product delivering the best in pro-
fessional tennis. The width, depth and consistency of the brand enables it to extend
over the space, goods, spectator experience, the two-week tournament and throughout
the year. The green, purple and white logo appears on television screens throughout
the world, communicating a seemingly unchanging essence of Wimbledon across a
range of multiple and shifting product lines.
In 2007, television coverage of the Championships was broadcast globally for
10,211 hours, aired on 129 channels in 185 territories across Europe, Asia Pacifi c,
Central and South America, North America, Africa and the Middle East. A stag-
gering 748.4 million television households watched the action. The BBC broadcast
804 hours of interactive coverage through its BBCi service. Eight million users
logged on to the offi cial Web site, http://www.wimbledon.org, and the site was vis-
ited, in total, 40 million times. Live coverage of the Championships was available
on the official Web site and via twenty-one other Internet providers. Ten different

mobile providers enabled users to access the Championships on their mobile phones,
including daily video highlights, archive content, the Official Java Scoreboard, wall-

papers and ring tones (All England Lawn Tennis Club 2007).

Addressing Difference in Wimbledon’s Global Broadcasts

Hills and Kennedy’s (2006) analysis of the broadcasting of Wimbledon on British
and American television revealed how similarities and differences in the media cov-
erage constructed a subtly different national address. Morley (2000) observed that
programmes signal to members of some groups that they are specifi cally designed
for those groups. The coverage of Wimbledon on the BBC and by the National