Sport leads the game

Take-aways from the “Yearly Sport Key Facts 2010/2011”

“Sport remains an outstanding ratings booster” underlines Jacques Braun, Vice President of Eurodata TV Worldwide for the launch of the Yearly Sport Key Facts – 2011 issue. “2011 was a year of opportunities for local & pan-regional events: the Super Bowl, which won the first International TV Audience sports awards at the Sportel Monaco, is the perfect illustration”.

This 2010/11 season has seen a feminisation of both events and audiences. The FIFA Women’s World Cup was one of the biggest winners of the period studied. In Germany, the host country, more than 17 million fans were following their team in the semi-final against Japan on ZDF, for a market share of 59.2%, the year’s highest audience. In New Zealand, the opening match of the Rugby World Cup between Tonga and the All Blacks gathered an audience of 1 million viewers on TV One, 56% of whom were female. Last but not least, more than 35 million viewers followed Li Na’s victory in the Roland Garros women’s final in China (CCTV-5).

Among the other winning events, the Shanghai FINA Swimming World Championships recorded strong performances in Japan, with a peak audience of 3.1 million viewers (21.1% market shares) on TV Asahi.

Daegu IAAF Athletics World Championships also took advantage of its location in South Korea to reach great audiences in Asia, but also beyond. In France, the highest audience of the event was achieved with the relay 4×100m where the French team leaded by Christophe Lemaitre won the silver medal, with 3.8 million viewers and a 24.4% market share on France 2.

The Yearly Sport Key Facts shows that if the sport industry had any doubt about its ability to generate added value, it can rest assured: more than 70% of the free to air channels studied achieved a higher market share with sports programs in comparison to its average performance all genres combined.

In Belgium North, EEN, which dedicated 6% of its airtime to sport programming, recorded an average market share of 46.4% versus an overall market share of 31.3% over the period. Another even more impressive example is the Canadian channel CBC, whose market share rises to 29.9% when it airs sports from 5% for all its programming between September 2010 and 2011.

Generalist channels also sometimes decided to share their rights with smaller cable or DTT sister channels to help them reach wider audiences, and to gain new potential viewers. In France, the group M6 took the strategic decision to air the Europa League broadcasts on its DTT channel W9. In Spain, the TVE group decided to broadcast world-famous events such as the Tour de France and Roland Garros, which used to be aired on La1 or La2, on their thematic channel Teledeporte. The results have been effective as the channel’s market share was nearly 3 times higher in 2010 than it was two years before.

The report also provides insight into the struggle between global and local events. On one hand, the worldwide events such as the UEFA Champions League or Tennis Grand Slam tournaments still top the charts. On the other hand, local events keep drawing crowds in their home countries. In Australia between September 2010 and August 2011, Australian Rules football represented 23% of the sport offer on TV, and TV viewers dedicated 29% of their sport daily viewing time to it. Similarly, the Vasaloppet in Sweden and the Hakone Relay Marathon in Japan show that local events still have something to say in the fight for successes.

A new trend which has also been in evidence in this year without mega events, especially in Asia, is the attraction for pan-regional events. The Asian Cup and the AFF Suzuki Cup both broke ratings records, with the AFF Suzuki Cup final between Indonesia and Malaysia reaching the highest audience of the period in both countries, with 12.9 million viewers in Indonesia and a great 70% market share on RCTI. In fact, 8 of the 10 best sports broadcasts between September 2010 and August 2011 in Indonesia were part of the Suzuki Cup

Last minute update…

After all these exiting 2010/2011 Sports key facts, the new sport season just started the best way we could imagine with the Rugby World Cup, breaking new records in Europe and in the Pacific continent. In France, the final versus New Zealand reached the highest audience of 2011 to date all genres combined, with 15.4 million viewers and a 82.3% market share on TF1 (overnight audience). “The RWC  held in New Zealand delivered its absolute best audience in France with 15.4 million French fans who, despite the time difference and the expected easy victory of the All Blacks, watched the final this Sunday at 10am on TF1″, said Louis Mauran, Head of Sport Services at Eurodata TV Worldwide.

Sport also has the chance to reinforce its impact through the internet, offering sport addicts a larger number of possibilities. Television, however, remains at the heart of the debates. Through connected TV, social media and internet actually help to feed sport TV audience. This should ensure records in 2012 with the Football European Championship and above all the London Olympic Games.

The final word comes from Phil Savage, publishing editor at Sportbusiness International: “Sports programming has all the elements of classic escapism: celebrity, drama, feuds, combat and tribal loyalties and viewers have switched onto sport like never before”.

The “Yearly Sport Key Facts” is the brand new report published by Eurodata TV Worldwide covering September 2010 to August 2011. It reviews the achievements of international competitions such as the UEFA Champions League, IAAF Athletics World Championships but also of major national competitions. With graphs and competitions mapping, it was designed to investigate a variety of sport issues: which competitions are the most followed? Which sports viewers prefer to watch compared to the TV offer? All these questions have their answers in the Yearly Sport Key Facts.

Sources : Eurodata TV Worldwide / AGF – GfK Fernsehforschung / BBM Canada / CIM / CSM Media Research / Kantar Media / Médiamétrie / Nielsen TV Audience Measurement / Video Research Ltd / Yearly Sport Key Facts – Relevant Partners – All rights reserved

About Eurodata TV Worldwide

Created by Médiamétrie, Eurodata TV Worldwide distributes programming and audience information, based on its partnership with the national institutes operating people meter systems throughout the world. Today, Eurodata TV Worldwide’s database contains more than 2000 channels in more than 80 countries and provides an exhaustive amount of daily program information including: content, production, international distribution and the audience levels for targeted programs, all data emanating directly from the relevant authorized institute based in each country around the world. These data provide a range of services which help in the decision-making process of international professionals within the audio-visual world like producers, distributors, broadcasters, copyright organisations, sponsors, etc.

About Médiamétrie

Remember that Médiamétrie is the French inter-professional company which measures the audiences of both audio-visual and interactive mediums. It’s aim is to ensure audience and performance measurement for the audio-visual and interactive medias and in addition to attain the high level of quality to be the unique professional reference for all the market players with the general consensus. Médiamétrie was created in 1985, and has developed it’s Television, Radio, Cinema, Internet and New Media activities in France and abroad.

Pour toute information Commerciale :

Louis Mauran -Tel.: +33 01 47 58 36 56

E-mail: lmauran@eurodatatv.com

www.eurodatatv.com