Shinai Sports, the Chinese streaming platform, will broadcast this year’s upcoming Wimbledon Championship tennis grand slam after striking a two-year extension to its media rights deal with tournament organizer, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC).
Under the agreement, Shinai Sports will hold exclusive digital rights in mainland China to Wimbledon for the 2023 and 2024 editions, which it will show across its platforms including the iQIYI sports channel, app, website, and Qiyigou TV.
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Shinai has held exclusive Wimbledon rights since 2019 and this year’s coverage will include iQiyi broadcasting the entire event with Chinese commentary from July 3 to 16.
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.
Paul Davies, head of broadcast, production, and media rights at Wimbledon, said: “We are delighted to have renewed once again our broadcast partnership with Shinai Sports, ensuring comprehensive coverage of the Championships will feature across iQIYI’s digital platforms in what for us is an incredibly important market.”
The rights add to Shinai Sports’ extensive tennis portfolio, which includes the other three grand slam tournaments – the Australian Open, French Open, and US Open – as well as the men’s ATP tour and women’s WTA tour finals.
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By GlobalDataIt also holds several sets of soccer rights including the upcoming 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, English Premier League, UEFA Champions League, Italy’s Serie A, and competitions organized by the Asian Football Confederation such as the Asian Cup 2023 and Asian Champions League.
Yu Lingxiao, chief executive of Shinai Sports, said: “Not only is Wimbledon the premier grass-court grand slam tennis tournament, but it is also one of the most attractive international tournaments with its unique historical and cultural heritage.
“Shinai Sports will continue to innovate and show the charm of Wimbledon to the Chinese audience in a more comprehensive way from the perspectives of technology, content, marketing, and promotion."
The new deal comes days after Bild, the Axel Springer-owned German media outlet, announced it will provide free live-streaming coverage of several matches from the tournament after securing a sublicensing agreement with pay-TV operator Sky Deutschland.
The deal will see the outlet’s Bild and Sport Bild platforms gain rights to live-stream one match per round from the first round until the quarter-finals, starting with a first-round fixture featuring Germany’s Alexander Zverev.
Rights in the US are held by international sports broadcaster ESPN through a 12-year deal running through 2035. Media giant Warner Bros. Discovery, meanwhile, holds rights to the tournament in the Nordic countries of Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden as part of an 11-territory agreement that expires after this year’s tournament.
Image: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
