Reuters
London, June 21

Some troubled technology and media companies are using the Wimbledon tennis championships to see if services like texting results and webcasts of matches can bring the revenue they desperately lack.

A Wimbledon victory off-court, the companies say, will offer a vital glimpse about the of their high-tech gambits.

"Wimbledon is an opportunity we saw whereby we could create a premium version of content on the Internet for those tennis fans who really care," said Larry Jacobson, president and chief operating officer for Seattle-based Real Networks.

Real Networks earlier this week launched SuperPass, its first subscription Internet media player for European consumers, using Wimbledon match highlights as a draw to attract paying subscribers.

GEEK-SPEAK COURTSIDE

The Wimbledon championship has become a showcase for new broadcast technologies over the past five years but the biggest contingent of tech and media firms yet will be part of this year's action.

They include Wimbledon's IT sponsor International Business Machines, AOL Time Warner's eponymous Internet unit and its Turner Sports broadcasting group, Real Networks, and privately held U.S. sports rights management group IMG and its interactive unit TWIi Interactive.

In the weeks before Monday's opening-day matches, engineers and technical staff have spent countless hours wiring the courts, ready to broadcast every ace, backhand volley and fault to nearly any gadget with a screen: interactive television, the Internet, mobile phones and other personal digital assistants.

And their presence around the grounds stood out. There was more geek-speak than talk about the chances of Tim Henman, Britain's best player, or the Williams sisters.

Bandwidth considerations, SMS and WAP text alerts to mobile phones, video-on-demand for digital TV watchers, all dominate the conversation.

GEEKY ICONOCLASTS

The embrace of technology runs at odds with the purist image of Wimbledon. Tracing its history back to the mid-19th century, it eschews the over-the-top marketing glitz that pervades big-time sports events. It is not nearly the commercial powerhouse of its American cousin, the U.S. Open.

"Wimbledon is perceived to be a very traditional brand," said Patrick McNerney, international vice president, commercial and operations manager for TWIi Interactive.

"It's interesting to see what they've done over the past four or five years, particularly with their syndication of data. They are at the forefront of rights management."

Because of the global appeal of Wimbledon, the club feels as if it owes its fans as much access to the event as possible.

"The club has always embraced new technology where it is of real benefit. Our aim is to enhance the quality of the Wimbledon experience for those who cannot attend," the club's information technology director told Reuters via email.

To that end, live match scoring will be broadcast to www.Wimbledon.org, courtesy of IBM. And Real Networks will patch into Wimbledon.org feeds to broadcast a daily highlights reel, plus player interviews and news conferences.

Last year, the website attracted 3.2 million users, more than double that of the French Open site. For IBM, maintaining the site, now in its seventh year, has become one of Big Blue's biggest technology challenges and a big IT investment.

"Whatever traffic you plan on, it still breaks your expectations," said Mark McMurrugh, project director of IBM at Wimbledon. "We have to put the infrastructure in place to support those broken expectations."

OUTSIDE LONDON

In the U.S., Turner Sports, an American broadcaster of the event through its cable channel TNT, is teaming with Cablevision Systems Corp., and pay-per-view cable television outfits iN DEMAND and TVN to offer video-on-demand broadcasts of classic Wimbledon matches like the 1981 John McEnroe-Bjorn Borg final.

AOL members will be able to sign up on the AOL service to get match updates beamed to their mobile phones.

Testing the latest technologies on tennis fans is a logical fit. The typical tennis fan is considered to be among the most tech-savvy among sports fans, and the fan base is nearly 50-50 male to female, tennis enthusiasts say.

If technology and media firms are ever going to learn whether there is strong demand for their new technology gambits, then Wimbledon is the venue.

"The biggest thing with all this new technology is that if it comes out too soon, you can fall flat on your face," said McMurragh. "We're not about to do that."