This week's Throwback Thursday from the Wimbledon Museum explores how Wimbledon came to be broadcast on television for the first time...
Today, The Championships reach an estimated global TV audience of over a billion people across almost 200 territories. Over 3,000 broadcast personnel now attend The Championships, and Centre Court now houses commentary boxes for almost 40 networks and 18 cameras.
It wasn’t always like this. 78 years ago, the only way to keep up to date with live tennis was to listen to the radio broadcast or watch as a lucky spectator.
It was in 1937 that Wimbledon was broadcast for the first time by the BBC, the host broadcaster of The Championships today. The broadcast concentrated on matches taking place on Centre Court and were transmitted by the BBC for half an hour each day. Only two cameras were used on the court - one in the South East corner which gave a close up view of the match, and the other at the opposite end of the court giving a general view. Imagine how alien the cameras must have looked. I would probably have spent more time looking at the new cameras rather than on the match!
The first televised match took place on the opening day between Bunny Austin and George Lyttleton Rogers. This was broadcast for only 25 minutes. The cameras were connected by a cable to a small unit located in a car park and was then transmitted to the then BBC headquarters at Alexandra Palace in North London. The following clip shows a selection of the matches that took place during the first broadcast.
After the Second World War, matches began to be televised for longer periods each day. Thirty years after this broadcast, The Championships became the first programme to be officially broadcast in colour – with over four hours of live coverage shown on BBC Two. This broadcast led the way for regular colour TV programmes in the UK.
So... do you have a favourite Wimbledon TV moment?
