Bringing the French l’esprit to the globe at Roland-Garros

Roland-Garros is coming to its zenith this weekend, with Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff set to face off in the women’s singles final, and two of Carlos Alcaraz, Lorenzo Musetti, Novak Djokovic, and Jannik Sinner to do the same in the men’s. 

However, the French Tennis Federation (FFT) and new host broadcaster Whisper will be hoping that viewers have been tuned in for a while by now. 

“They want to make sure that people start talking about Roland-Garros earlier, because everybody talks about the final, but unfortunately then the tournament is over,” Whisper account director Sebastian Tiffert told Broadcast Sport. To this end, Whisper produced a feed with English commentary from the Suzanne Lenglen court, qualifying’s biggest court, for the first time this year, as well as live broadcasts of training and practise sessions. 

This extra content is also important in a world where linear channels are no longer the be all and end all. Amandine Tyl, head of production and broadcast services at the FFT, told Broadcast Sport that: “The needs of broadcasters have slightly changed because many of them now have OTT platforms.”

Due to this, they, “want to give more content to broadcasters and the chance to make their own choice regarding their targets and local heroes.”

To this end, the English commentary feed from Suzanne Lenglen continues throughout the tournament, meaning that, in addition to the main world feed, broadcasters now receive four court feeds. This aim stretches outside of live too, with Tiffert saying, “non-live programming is something we’ve changed a lot.” 

Before the tennis got started, Whisper delivered, “classic,” programming to broadcasters months ahead of the event, and then digital assets and short-form video as Roland-Garros got closer. The production company is also producing two shows for the Roland-Garros and FFT YouTube channels during the tournament, and further social content for their channels. 

There are also tech improvements for 2025, with an ultra slow-motion camera added to the main Phillipe Chatrier court, and a spidercam on Suzanne Lenglen - which Tifferts says adds, “fantastic versatility to do player entrances, to capture the shots from all different angles.” There are also handheld cameras now being used to cover the player benches, allowing for the production to get closer without disturbing the athletes. 

The four main courts are being produced onsite, with EMG providing OB trucks, while the outer courts and world feed are produced from Timeline’s facility in London. Another first for 2025 is more data and graphics, thanks to new agreements with Ellipse’s TennisViz and Deltatre respectively. Tyl explained that this, “Should help to reach a younger audience, and a different audience to the one we currently have for tennis,” and, “it allows for more storytelling and helps people to understand tennis more.” 

While technology has been improved, AI and automation is still being avoided, with the belief that the technology isn’t ready for tennis. Tyl says, “We trust people more than AI at the moment.

“For tennis, when you have only three or four cameras on court, you need to make sure you get the shot you need. If AI misses something, then you basically only have the wide shot, which is nice but not enough for tennis.”

Another aim for this year has been to bring more of Paris to viewers, Tyl revealed, “This is the most beautiful city in the world, so we wanted to bring more of Paris into our coverage.”

Part of Whisper’s pitch to the FFT included them telling Tyl and her team, “’Hey guys, you have the most beautiful city in the world and you’re not showing it at all. I mean, come on, do something.’ We also saw during the Olympics that part of the coverage was not only the sport, which is of course what everybody is expecting, but also of Paris. So we took the inspiration from the Olympics.”

Tiffert added that two thirds of the production crew are either French or based in Paris and that, “It was so important to keep this French flair or the French spirit, l’esprit, of Roland-Garros.”

With four more years to go in Whisper’s current deal with the FFT, the pair aren’t stopping here on any fronts. Tyl asserted: “We didn’t want to do everything in year one. So, we’ve made some improvements, but there is a plan to be even better in the future.” 

Image: Getty