Don’t think there’ll be changes to the main coverage (i.e., what airs on the main channel). However, would be surprised if the individual court streams aren’t put exclusively behind the Stan Sport paywall and are still offered on 9Now.
If you assume that say $5 - $10 million of the $85 million (average) Nine will be paying per year from 2025 for the AO rights accounts for the warm-up events, Davis Cup and Billie Jean Cup, you’re looking at the network paying between $75 - $80 million for a two week event and needing to find ways to recoup at least some of that. One way to do it would be to shift some of that into Stan Sport’s expenses.
To reverse something Johnson said, that relationship wouldn’t have guaranteed Nine would have retained the rights if (like Seven found a few years ago) they weren’t willing to offer enough to do so. The dynamic works both ways.
Of course but the All England Club knows and understands that Wimbledon’s ability to capture the attention and imagination of the UK public for two weeks each year in July has a lot to do with the BBC’s near wall-to-wall coverage over the fortnight. It’s something the other terrestrial networks probably wouldn’t be able to do to the same extent.
