Media and entertainment giant Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has renewed its exclusive deal with the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) to retain rights to the prestigious Wimbledon grand slam in 11 European markets until 2027.
The extended broadcast partnership means the grass-court event will continue to be shown on WBD's linear channel Eurosport in Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Slovakia, and Sweden, with streaming of every match on Max, WBD’s new streaming service, in selected markets.
This extends Eurosport’s exclusive rights in these territories beyond a decade after it first produced multi-market coverage of Wimbledon in 2016 (Belgium from 2015).
The long-term deal was facilitated by sports marketing agency IMG, the AELTC’s exclusive media rights sales representative.
WBD’s coverage of Wimbledon this year begins with the qualifying rounds from June 24.
In addition, Eurosport will provide non-exclusive, live television coverage of the Wimbledon gentlemen’s and ladies’ singles finals in the UK, as well as a 90-minute daily highlights package. The BBC public-service broadcaster is the main rightsholder in the UK.
The main Wimbledon Championships will this year be held between July 1 and July 14.
The new deal makes Eurosport the exclusive home of every grand slam tournament - the Australian Open, Roland-Garros, Wimbledon, and the US Open - in the aforementioned 11 territories.
Trojan Paillot, senior vice president of sports rights acquisitions and syndications at Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, has said: “We’re pleased to extend our highly successful partnership with the All England Club beyond a decade which enables us to continue investing in our broadcast production to constantly innovate and find new and even more immersive ways to engage tennis fans with our live coverage and content offer.”
The AELTC has struck several deals in other major European markets in recent months, including a new tie-up with the Amazon Prime Video global streaming service in Germany and Austria until 2027 and an extension with international pay-TV sports broadcaster BeIN Sports in France until 2028.
WBD, meanwhile, recently launched Max in 20 European territories, expanding the distribution network of its sports content across the continent.
The service combines content from WBD’s owned streaming services, including Discovery+ and Eurosport, into one platform.
As well as tennis, Eurosport’s portfolio of rights includes the Paris 2024 Olympics, FIS World Cup skiing, cycling's Tour de France, La Vuelta, and Giro d’Italia, and motor racing’s Formula E and Le Mans 24 Hours.
