The Curious Official Broadcast of the Australian Open
The Grand Slam streams its matches live on YouTube, with the unique feature that players are represented by characters resembling those from the Wii Sports video game.
These virtual avatars recreate what happens in the tennis match in real time with 100% accuracy. Matches featuring players like Carlos Alcaraz or Jannik Sinner have already been broadcast this way.
The Australian Open, like many other ATP tournaments, has sold all its broadcasting rights globally to television networks. Without this approach, it wouldn’t be able to showcase matches on its own channel.
This “virtual” sports format has previously been seen in competitions like F1 or the NBA, with broadcasts aimed at younger audiences.
