Chinese digital giant Tencent has expanded its tennis portfolio after securing exclusive broadcast rights to the Wimbledon Championship grand slam in mainland China for the next three years.
The deal, struck by Tencent and the tournament organizer – the All England Lawn Tennis Club – will see Tencent’s digital platform show coverage of the grand slam from 2025 to 2027.
The rights package includes live broadcasts of games, as well as additional content such as match replays, on-demand viewing, and highlights across Tencent’s media and social platforms, including Tencent Video, Tencent Sports, WeChat, Tencent News, qq.com, and QQ.
Paul Davies, associate director of broadcast, production, and media rights at the All England Club, has said: “We are delighted to be working with Tencent to showcase all the thrilling action from Wimbledon to tennis fans in China.
“Whether it is live broadcast, match replays, highlights or features, Tencent’s multimedia platforms will ensure fans won’t miss a moment of their favorite players at Wimbledon.”
Tencent previously held exclusive digital media rights for the 2017 Wimbledon edition and earlier this week also announced it had struck a live broadcast deal with women’s tennis’ WTA Tour to show all WTA 250, 500, and 1000 tournaments through to the season-ending WTA Finals in November for the 2025 season.
IMG, the international sports marketing agency, distributes Wimbledon’s international broadcast rights and manages its sponsorship portfolio as part of a long-standing partnership with the AELTC that was last renewed in December 2022.
The Wimbledon Grand Slam was previously shown by Chinese streaming platform Shinai Sports, which held exclusive digital rights in mainland China for the 2019 to 2024 editions, which it showed across its platforms including the iQIYI sports channel, app, website, and Qiyigou TV.
Tennis is enjoying increased popularity in China, due to a new generation of Chinese tennis players showcasing their talents, headlined by women’s world number eight Zheng Qinwen, who won two WTA titles in 2024 and reached the WTA Finals that year.
Other up-and-coming players the country is keen to showcase include Shang Juncheng, Zhang Zhizhen, and Wang Xinyu.
Jeff Han, vice-president of Tencent Online Video, said: "An increasing number of people in China are paying attention to and participating in tennis.
“The cooperation between the All England Club and Tencent will help drive a new wave of tennis enthusiasm. We hope that through the broadcast of Wimbledon and high-quality content, more users will be able to experience the charm of this century-old tournament up close."
This year’s edition runs from June 30 to July.
Meanwhile, the women’s WTA Tour has announced bumper global audience numbers for 2024, reaching a record 1.1 billion on broadcast and streaming platforms worldwide.
The number represents a 10% increase on the previous season, largely helped by the season-ending WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia attracting the biggest of any previous finals tournament, with a global audience of 78 million – up 160% against the audience for the previous year’s event.
The tour attributed the jump in numbers to Chinese engagement in the tour, with five Chinese singles players in the top 100 of the WTA Rankings, and a large Chinese audience watching Zheng Qinwen make her debut at the WTA Finals.
The 2024 WTA Finals was shown on Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, marking the first time the tournament had received linear TV coverage in the country since Peng Shuai, a prominent Chinese tennis player throughout the 2010s, disappeared in November 2021 following allegations of rape she made against a senior Chinese government member.
In the aftermath of her disappearance, the WTA suspended all its events in China and online streaming service iQiyi ended its 10-year rights deal with the WTA, which first began in 2017.
However, the WTA’s boycott ended in April 2023, with chief executive Steve Simon admitting a “different approach” was needed.
