Record-breaking Roland-Garros as Eurosport sees 18% growth
With live tennis action led by Jelena Ostapenko and Rafael Nadal, plus long and short form content such as newly-renamed daily magazine show Game Schett & Mats, The Coach hosted by Patrick Mouratoglou and the Commissioner of Tennis episodes featuring John McEnroe, average Eurosport audience figures increased to over 1 million representing year-on-year growth of 18%.
Eurosport CEO Peter Hutton said: “At a time when there is a general feeling that the amount of viewers watching live sport on TV is in decline, Eurosport continues to defy that belief with a record-breaking 18% audience growth for Roland-Garros, contributing to an overall viewership increase for Eurosport 1 of 9% this year.
“Roland-Garros was an extremely successful event for us. Whilst we take great pride in appealing to our hardcore tennis fans via our Tennis Explainers and The Coach segments, Eurosport also recognises the importance of broadening our audience base and appealing to the casual tennis fan – that’s why we enjoy working so much with a character such as John McEnroe in his role as Commissioner so much.”
Triple & double-digit growth recorded in multiple markets versus 2016:
- +123% in Denmark
- +60% in Spain
- +47% in Romania
- +20% in Germany
- +20% in Sweden
- +18% in Norway
- +15% in Italy
In a year that saw Nadal secure La Decima – his tenth title at the French Open — Eurosport 1 in Spain recorded its best-ever Roland-Garros with a 60% year-on-year increase and an average audience of 62,000 throughout the tournament, smashing the previous best of 41,000 in 2012. 407,000 tennis fanatics watched Nadal’s imperious display in the men’s singles final against Stan Wawrinka, securing the network’s second-best programme ever, only beaten by the epic encounter between Roger Federer and Nadal at the Australian Open earlier this year.
Eurosport 1 Romania also reported its second best programme in the history of the channel with over 780,000 viewers tuning in to the classic semi-final encounter between Simona Halep and Czech Karolina Pliskova, a figure that contributed to the same match being the most watched in the entire tournament (2,942,000 viewers on average).
With Boris Becker headlining Eurosport Germany’s broadcast of Roland Garros, audience figures increased by 20% in Germany compared to 2016 despite just one German player – men or women – progressing further than the first round.
Eurosport in Norway (+18% vs 2016), Italy (+15% vs 2016) and Sweden (+20%) all recorded double-digit growth while Caroline Wozniacki’s run to the ladies singles quarter-finals helped Eurosport Denmark’s average audience figures increase a staggering 123% in comparison to 12 months ago.
Later this month, Eurosport will broadcast The Championships from Wimbledon in 34 territories across the continent with the qualifying tournament from Roehampton shown for the first time on Eurosport 1 and Eurosport Player.