Interview with Marcel Wontorra (member of the DYN management board): ‘The TTBL has much more to offer than just Timo Boll.’

DYN and the Table Tennis Bundesliga (TTBL) are entering their third year of media partnership. In this interview, DYN COO Marcel Wontorra looks back on new experiences, comments on Timo Boll's departure and Olympic champion Fan Zhendong's entry into the TTBL, and reveals new programme content for the upcoming season.

Marcel Wontorra, the TTBL set an impressive attendance record last season with well over 70,000 spectators for the first time and a 14 percent increase over the previous year's result. How satisfied is DYN with the past table tennis season?

We are very pleased with the development. On the one hand, the record attendance figures are a good result for the local clubs and for the media image of the sport in general and the TTBL in particular. On the other hand, the AWA, the Allensbach Market and Advertising Media Analysis, has also identified a growing interest in table tennis. Compared to 2022, i.e. before the start of our partnership with the TTBL, interest has increased by ten percent. Of course, it is particularly pleasing for DYN that this development is also reflected in our reach: the Table Tennis Bundesliga achieved an average increase in reach of 18 percent per game with us last season. We see this as a positive development, especially as we have seen an even greater increase in total view figures due to the larger number of TTBL games. All the figures together, including web reach, TV clips on public broadcasters and increased coverage in the print media, are really good numbers. However, because we want to make the sport bigger, we look primarily at the trend and not just the raw numbers. We can see that, overall, we are fulfilling our mission of attracting more attention to the sport.

How does the TTBL compare with other sports in the DYN portfolio in terms of its development after the past season?

Handball and basketball have a longer history as media products and therefore have a wider reach. But table tennis can definitely keep up, as can our other sports, volleyball and field hockey.

The dominant theme of the past season was Timo Boll's farewell season. Did that contribute to the upswing in table tennis, or is the TTBL now strong enough to bring about growth on the scale described, organically so to speak?

Timo Boll is undoubtedly one of the greatest German athletes of all time, ranking alongside Michael Schumacher, Franz Beckenbauer, Boris Becker, Steffi Graf, Birgit Fischer and Isabell Werth. Of course, such a player is first and foremost an incredibly great figurehead for the TTBL. It wasn't just fans who followed his farewell tour. We tried to provide the best possible media coverage, including our eight-part documentary ‘Timo Boll – Der letzte Aufschlag’ (Timo Boll – The Last Serve). At the same time, however, I believe that the success and development of the TTBL is not only due to Timo Boll, but to the league as a whole, because we have seen an increase in reach for absolutely all matches. In this respect, the positive development cannot be attributed to one outstanding individual. The TTBL has much more to offer than Timo Boll. To be clear, this is absolutely positive.

The documentary about Timo Boll mentioned above was new territory for DYN in terms of production technology. What is the outcome of this project?

Our live sports and on-demand formats already focus on sports personalities and in-depth analysis. What was new for us was that we accompanied the sports star closely for an entire season with the aim of creating a documentary, which we then made available in a media library format. We believe that this was absolutely the right move, because our goal is to show sport from new perspectives and thus attract new fans to the sport. This works particularly well with such a strong personality as Timo Boll. All in all, it worked well because we really reached almost all of our table tennis subscribers with the Timo Boll documentary – and beyond that, others as well. The great thing for us is that our fans from other sports and sports enthusiasts in general also watched the documentary and thus became aware of DYN and the TTBL. Of course, we are also delighted that we managed to make the documentary accessible to an even wider audience in cooperation with ARD, as it is also available in their media library. All stages together do justice to the sport, but above all to the athlete Timo Boll.

However, you also said at the beginning that the TTBL's development last season was not solely down to the Boll factor. What else do you think made the past season so special?

We had TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen as champions, a team that not many people had on their radar at first. The team is always among the favourites, but Borussia Düsseldorf or 1. FC Saarbrücken-TT are usually the first teams you think of as title contenders. We also had Benedikt Duda, who got stronger and stronger after his surprise silver medal at the European Championships, we had many fantastic matches, but also curiosities such as a match between Hugo Calderano and an 11-year-old – in short: The TTBL always, really always, has something to offer in many ways. There are many top stars who also compete in all WTT and other major tournaments. In this respect, last season went far beyond the individual top player Timo Boll.

You already mentioned Ochsenhausen's championship after their previous cup victory? How important do you think it is for a league to have variety at the top?

Sporting excitement always plays into the hands of a media company. We are delighted about that. In the new season, Borussia Düsseldorf will now want to follow suit and reclaim the title after Saarbrücken and Ochsenhausen took the lead in previous years. There are other clubs that are following suit. That's good and shows the strong and positive sporting development of the league.

In addition to Timo Boll, Hugo Calderano and Simon Gauzy have also left the TTBL, but Olympic champion Fan Zhendong is now playing for Saarbrücken. At just the right time?

It is part of a league that stars come and eventually leave again. But it is all the more wonderful that the TTBL has been able to gain new stars, with a superstar like Fan Zhendong certainly deserving special mention. We are also looking forward to it. It not only helps Saarbrücken, but all clubs, that a very well-known player has been signed. The whole league benefits from this, with full arenas even for away games, because a new top star is coming to the league, as we have long known from football. Overall, the TTBL is becoming increasingly attractive for real stars.

Superstar Fan Zhendong's involvement in the TTBL is extraordinary. Does DYN plan to cover this beyond league reporting?

At DYN, we are naturally very interested in bringing special stories to life and following them closely. We will do this as closely and intimately as possible. Fan Zhendong's move to the TTBL is a great thing that benefits the entire league.

DYN has just completed its second season as a TTBL partner. What can you tell us about what goes on behind the scenes?

The setup is becoming increasingly professional, partly because we are continuously working on it. I would also like to highlight the clubs and their work, because they are very actively involved in the media product.

A media product in sport often changes with the start of a new season. Can we therefore expect changes to DYN's table tennis content?

We want to continue on the path we have already embarked upon. We are constantly making changes and are always in consultation with the clubs. We have made progress every year, but we are still continuously working on further areas for improvement and their implementation. I would describe us as very innovative and leading in this area. Next year, we will have a new feature in our programme: ‘Inside TTBL’. It is an addition to our existing TTBL formats such as ‘Plattenupdate’. The clubs will be accompanied on match days, and we are sure that there will be a lot of insights. You can't get any closer than that. We are also launching a free-to-air TV channel. ‘DYN Sport Mix’ will be available free of charge on various platforms. It is a linear channel on which we will also show live sports, such as TTBL matches.

We have already talked about your close support for Timo Boll in his last season. In the context of the aforementioned innovations in your programme, is it conceivable that this contact could lead to a collaboration?

We are in regular contact with Timo. I am sure that he will remain involved in the sport. That is exactly what we want. So if we find opportunities to work with Timo, we will be very happy to do so. We are naturally interested in his knowledge, expertise and background information for our reporting. That is why we could imagine, for example, involving him as an expert or in a suitable form as an additional element in our complete media offering.

In addition to the TTBL, DYN also scored points with table tennis fans last season by expanding its coverage of important WTT tournaments. Has this combination already proven itself?

In fact, we have broadcast even more WTT tournaments this year and are trying to cover as many competitions as possible. We are seeing a very nice interaction between the TTBL and WTT and are noticing that fans who closely follow the TTBL also closely follow the WTT tournaments. Ideally, we will continue to work with WTT in the coming years.

Thank you very much for the interview, Marcel Wontorra.

Interview: Florian Manzke