TV audiences across the Eurosport Group rose by 11% in the first five months of 2012 compared to the same period in 2011.
In a TV landscape offering endless choice viewers are choosing Eurosport, attracted by its wealth of live action, expert analysis and high production values.
Despite increasing competition for consumers time and attention from both different genres and an increasing multi-screen home environment Eurosport has cut through to secure growing TV audiences.
All Eurosport TV channels performed strongly during the first five months of the year, with Eurosport’s average TV audience rising by 7% and Eurosport 2 generating an average TV audience rise of +37%.
Audiences have enjoyed hours of live action and strong production on TV so far in 2012 from the Africa Cup of Nations, Australian Open tennis Grand Slam, international cycling and the finale of the Winter Sports season as well as dedicated local content in specific markets such as MotoGP, Bundesliga, Davis Cup tennis.
The strongest growth in average TV audiences has been seen in Poland with a rise of 43% vs 2011. It is joined across the continent with +25% average TV audiences in Italy, +22% in France, +12% in Romania, +11% in Netherlands, +11% in UK and +9% in Sweden.
This has generated impressive reach of audience for the channel’s major TV events in 2012. The thrilling 2012 Australian Open Grand Slam attracted over 56.4M different TV viewers on Eurosport channels, this was closely followed by the Africa Cup of Nations which drew 56.3M different TV viewers. Snooker also made a positive contribution with over 47M different TV viewers for the 2012 World Championships.
Eurosport’s commitment to live action remains unrivalled with over 50% of the television schedule so far in 2012 dedicated to live content.
And the channel’s exceptional year of sport continues in the coming months with action currently from the French Open tennis at Roland Garros, followed by UEFA Euro 2012, Athletics European Championships, Tour de France, London 2012 Olympic Games and US Open tennis.
Eurosport Chairman & CEO Laurent Eric Le Lay said: “Today sports fan consumers have more content and many channels to choose from and they are in control. At Eurosport, we believe providing the best experience possible on TV to viewers is our mission. And that is why sports fans choose us. The figures prove it.”
“It is a credit to everyone at Eurosport that we can announce such a strong start to the year thanks to the strength of our live coverage and production around major events. 2012 is an exceptional year of sport and the coming months represent an unique period in sport so we look forward to welcoming even more fans to our TV channels and across the entire platform of Eurosport channels beyond TV to internet and on all devices.”
Figures were calculated on the period “2nd January 2012 – 27th May 2012”
Sources: AGF/GfK, BARB, SKO, MMS, TNS-Gallup, Kantar Media, AGB NMR, Armadata/Kantar, Auditel, Mediametrie – Techedge, Reach based on people watching a dedicated programme at least 60 seconds