TELEVISION IS STILL NUMBER ONE WHEN IT COMES TO FOLLOW SPORTS

Television is still number one when it comes to following a local or international sporting event, according to Glance - Médiamétrie. That occurs even though broadcasting rights are being transferred to pay-TV channels, general interest channels broadcast less hours of sports and there is a strong expansion into the sports rights marketplace by Internet giants and OTT platforms.

On the release of the 2019 edition of the “Yearly Sport Key Facts” report, Yassine Berhoun, Glance's Sports Director, observed: “In an odd-numbered year when there are no major sporting event such as a Football World Cup or Olympic Games, once again, sport has proven to be most capable genre at bringing millions of viewers around the world to watch their TV”.

GENERAL INTEREST CHANNELS REFOCUS ON BIG SPORTING EVENTS

In many countries during the 2018-19 sports season, there was a general decline in the number of hours of sports broadcast on general interest channels. In recent years, there has been a transfer of broadcasting rights away from free-to-air channels towards pay-TV channels, especially as regards contests such as the Champions League and Formula 1. This can be seen in the current sports offering on general interest channels with its new focus on the major international competitions due to the legal protection for such broadcasts on free-to-air channels.

SUCCESSFUL GLOBAL CONTESTS

The FIFA Women's World Cup was one of this season’s biggest hits, establishing its rightful place in many countries. In the host nation France, the top five sports audiences from the season were for matches during the championship.

Meanwhile, just recently, this year’s Rugby World Cup held in Japan attracted large audiences, especially for the host nation. Indeed, the two highest audiences recorded so far in 2019 for any programme genre aired in Japan were Rugby World Cup matches.

PLEASANT SURPRISES FOR SPORTS WITH LESS EXPOSURE

Away from the big international competitions, the 2018-19 season, as in every year, generated its fair share of surprises, local particularities and other unusual performances. In Canada, for example, the Toronto Raptors’ victory against the Golden State Warriors in the 2019 NBA basketball finals caused a real stir: 6 out of the 10 top audiences during the season were for the final six games.

In Germany, for the first time since the 1999 Brazilian Grand Prix, the highest audience during the season was not for a football match, but rather for the semi-final of the World Men's Handball Championship between Germany and Norway, which gathered an audience of 11.9 million fans on ARD (36.4% audience share).

Winter sports have also featured among the most popular sports on air this season. As such in Austria and Slovenia, the top ten audiences for the season were for winter sports programmes. In Poland, 8 out of the 10 highest audiences over the period were for ski jumping, with more than 5.3 million viewers tuning in to TVP1.