European Broadcasters have reported excellent viewing figures and market shares during the Amsterdam 2016 European Athletics Championships, as the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) continues to compile its final television report for European Athletics.
More than 3 million German viewers watched peak-time coverage on German public-service television on Saturday evening – a 13.2% market share.
In France, over 2 million (17.9%) tuned in to watch on France 2 on Sunday evening. Meanwhile, 1.3 million (14.5%) did the same in Poland on TVP1.
Other standout peak-time performances included:
60.7% market share (905,000 viewers) in Finland on Thursday 7 July
52% (468,000) in Norway on Thursday 7 July
20.9% (942,000) in the Netherlands on Friday 8 July
14% (286,000) in Sweden on Saturday 9 July
European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen said, “We have been able to showcase the best of European Athletics during Amsterdam 2016, providing the biggest platform to promote our sport and athletes ahead of the Rio Olympics, on public free-to-air TV channels throughout the continent.”
Thirty-two European and two pan-continental broadcasters showed a planned 900 hours of coverage across the 5 days of Amsterdam 2016.
European Athletics will report a cumulative television audience figure from all broadcasters, including live, delayed and highlights, once a final report is received from EBU.
DIGITAL INNOVATION WITH ONE EYE ON 2018 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
With one eye on the Berlin 2018 European Athletics Championships, which will be part of the inaugural multi-sport European Championships, European Athletics and Eurovision showcased a number of digital services that helped increase the visibility of Amsterdam 2016.
A stream of the integrated feed was provided to viewers on the European Athletics website. Eurovision also offered access to all live isolated production feeds through a multi-feed streaming platform on the www.eurovisionsports.tv platform. Viewers were able to enjoy up to eight simultaneous feeds from the track, throw, shot put, vertical and horizontal jump competitions.
Sports fans were able to enjoy European Athletics Championships content across all platforms: radio, television, PC and mobile from any location in the world and at their convenience.
Julien Ternisien, EBU Head of Sports Rights, Summer Sports, confirmed: “We are extremely pleased to be able to offer these new exposure opportunities to sports events. Digital broadcast clearly complements other platforms and it is important for us to innovate in this area. This is only the beginning and I am convinced that we will further develop more of these services in the future.”
European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen said, “After the success of Amsterdam, we want to continue to work closely with our valued long-term partners EBU and alongside other stakeholders of the European Championships to create innovative ways to deliver a world-class spectacle in 2018 across television, digital and social platforms.”
The European Championships in Berlin and Glasgow through 1-12 August 2018 will bring together the existing continental championships of athletics, aquatics, cycling, gymnastics, rowing and triathlon, and also introduces a new golf team championship onto the European stage. The goal of this new sporting partnership is to create a strong, European Sports Federation-controlled event on the world stage every four years.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the world’s leading alliance of public service media, will be the broadcast partner for the Championships. The event will be available to a potential television audience of around 1.03 billion with many more opportunities to access to content across multiple digital and radio platforms, with 2,700 hours of programming.