Page 196 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

Making Connections: Wimbledon, Media and Society • 185

Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) of the United States addressed UK and US viewers
in ways that corresponded to their national settings. For example, the NBC coverage
constructed an address that oscillated between the ‘we’ of the viewer imaginatively
situated in England and the ‘we’ of the viewer at home in the United States. In the

build-up to the start of the 2005 Williams vs. Sharapova semifinal, NBC commen-
tary noted, ‘These are the moments that you so appreciate [in] this championship—
how quiet it is. None of the accessories we’ve been fed in American sport on centre
court. Just spectators and their applause.’
The coverage of the ladies semifinals on the BBC created a montage of signifi ers

of Wimbledon designed to appeal to a British audience. It opened with a series of
shots of an empty centre court. Rows of green seats, the entrance to the stairwell
and a close-up of the scoreboard (emphasising the words Previous Sets) were shown
over a soundtrack of courtside ambience. The voice of former British Wimbledon
champion and commentator Virginia Wade entered the soundtrack: ‘and believe me,
Lindsay Davenport’s heart is beating very fast’. Wade’s voice gave way to that of
Sue Barker, another former British player and the anchor of the BBC broadcast.

Barker was flanked by two armed forces personnel acting as guards at the open
doors of the club house. Abruptly, the music changed to the nostalgic, upbeat, big
band theme tune evoking 1960s BBC sport shows. The images were a collage of past
champions, the trophies, the Wimbledon logo, a Womble waving a Union Jack fl ag,
Henman Hill and the court being covered for rain; it culminated in a shot of clouds in
a blue sky, with the sun just peeping out and the recognizable BBC Sport Wimbledon
2005 graphic over the top.
On NBC, over the kind of music used to herald the arrival of royalty, the same
event was announced as an exciting change from normal broadcasting. The ini-
tial images were of a tea table covered with a Union Jack flag for a tablecloth and

crowded with cups and saucers, trophies and silverware, with a teapot next to a tennis
ball and wooden racket. The word Wimbledon appeared in swirly golden calligra-
phy next to the NBC logo. Following a sequence of images of Venus Williams and
Maria Sharapova to the tune of Madonna’s ‘Vogue’, the tennis match was announced
by a collage of tourist signifiers of London (Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Westminster

Abbey, guards in bearskin caps) intermingled with images of green grass courts, the
Wimbledon logo and Union Jacks. The words Wimbledon SW19 appeared across the
screen, accompanied by a medieval fanfare.
These opening sequences presented a version of English cultural nationalism
through a collection of iconic sounds and images of Englishness deeply located in a
specific space and time. The 1960s and 1970s nostalgia of the cosy British sports pro-

gramming on the BBC, with its referencing of previous years’ viewing of the Cham-
pionship and its stars, invited the audience into the space of Wimbledon through its
camera shots of the empty court waiting to be fi lled. NBC combined a more distant
past of historical landmarks and medieval tournaments with the almost-contemporary
sound of Madonna to achieve a similar result. For a British audience, the NBC