4 - FIFA/CIES International University Network

MEDIA
Extra-time gave Spain its highest ever TV audience - Getty Images Sport
previous record of 19.4 million, set in the
second round by US-Ghana.
Before the 2010 World Cup, the highest US
audience for a men’s football match was
18.1 million for the US-hosted 1994 World Cup
final between Brazil and Italy.
In host country South Africa, public-service
broadcaster SABC’s average audience for the
tournament was 129 per cent higher than for
2006, when the Bafana Bafana did not qualify.
Free-to-air World Cup audiences in Italy fell
by 24 per cent on 2006, when the Azzurri were
crowned world champions. This time round
the team was eliminated in the group stages.
Audiences for Italy’s group games were down
13 per cent on the 2006 group matches.
France also fell at the first hurdle, crashing
out at the group stage amid dressing room
discontent. Ratings on commercial channel TF1,
which showed 27 matches live, were down
36 per cent on 2006.
In the UK, 57 matches were broadcast freeto-air
on public service-broadcaster the BBC and
commercial broadcaster ITV. BBC1 and ITV1
between them, including audiences on their
respective high-definition channels, attracted an
average of 6.046 million per match, six per cent
down on 2006. HD audiences accounted for
about nine per cent of the total audience.
Huge appetite for internet sport
World Cup broadcasters in both Europe
and the US hailed the 2010 World Cup as a
breakthrough event for sports internet coverage.
Dominic Coles, chief operating officer at the
BBC, described the success of the corporation’s
online audiovisual World Cup content “a turning
point.” He said the medium has now become
“a common part of a user’s daily broadband
experience, especially for the major events.”
The BBC had 38.1 million requests to view
audiovisual content during the tournament,
smashing the previous high of 5.1 million for
Euro 2008. US sports broadcaster ESPN, a
pioneer of online sports coverage, said that the
World Cup had been “truly a breakout event” for
its ESPN3 broadband service.
ESPN3 generated 942 million minutes of
World Cup viewing, with 7.4 million unique
viewers each watching over two hours coverage
on average. The semi-final between Spain
and Germany drew ESPN3’s largest-ever live
audience, 355,000 people per minute.
ITV said that its figures for World Cup
internet coverage illustrated that there was now
“a huge appetite for consuming live action on
the television and online simultaneously.” ITV
attracted two million unique users to its online
coverage during the tournament.
Ericson said that the additional content FIFA
had made available this time was a factor in the
amount of online viewing.
“We wanted to offer more content than ever
before from the event and we placed the rights
somewhat differently in 2010 so broadcasters
had more flexibility,” he said. He also expects
FIFA to deliver even more online content for the
2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Other European broadcasters reported
record numbers for their internet coverage. In
Germany, public-service broadcaster ZDF had
35.9 million unique users on its main website
during the tournament, almost 50 per cent
above normal traffic volumes.
The website zdf.sport.de had 12.7 million
visits, a 381-per-cent increase on its average
monthly traffic. Live match streams drew
an average of 102,000 viewings, peaking at
190,000 for Germany’s victory over Argentina.
In Italy, state broadcaster Rai’s main website,
Rai.it, had record traffic levels during the
tournament, with 116 million page views and an
average of 460,000 unique users daily. The
Rai.tv website, which carries audiovisual
content, had 37 million page views and a daily
average of 233,000 unique users, a 289-per-cent
increase on the same period in 2009.
Rai’s total World Cup coverage, including
match coverage and news, recorded 20 million
page visits, with 250,000 unique users on its
website every day during the competition. Rai’s
peak audience for live streaming was over one
million, for Italy’s group stage defeat to Slovakia.
In France, TF1 had 31 million unique users,
with 10 million videos viewed on its dedicated
site. It drew 334,000 bets, and 40,000
registered users, to its EurosportBET website.
Several World Cup broadcasters were able to
successfully expand the reach of their coverage
through different forms of mobile coverage.
One million unique viewers used ESPN’s
mobile TV, registering 93 million minutes of
viewing, and setting viewing records on major
mobile TV platforms MobiTV and Flo TV. In
total, World Cup content on ESPN’s mobile
offerings generated 98 million visits and
520 million page views. ITV reported 800,000
downloads and two million content views of its
World Cup iPhone app. TF1 recorded 250,000
iPhone apps downloaded.
Eurodata TV Worldwide is the leading provider of sports television
audiences, with access to ratings and programming details for 2,000
channels over five continents. Eurodata TV Worldwide offers a range
of services to help clients successfully market TV programmes and
monitor their broadcasts.
Florent Simon
Eurodata TV Worldwide Sport Manager
Email: fsimon@eurodatatv.com
Tel: +33 171 099 307
SportBusiness International • No.160 • 09.10 23