Speaking at SPORTELASIA Jacques Braun, Eurodata TV Worldwide Vice President, said both events should generate record audiences in the respective continents.
He said we can expect that millions will follow the Olympics, since Eurodata TV Worldwide observed, for example, that the New Year’s Eve programme achieved an average audience of more than 270 million viewers in China. What advertiser would not dream of being able to reach 250 million consumers in one hit? And this potential is evident not only in China but also over the entire Asian continent.
During the Olympics, it’s the Opening Ceremony which gets the highest audience levels in most countries even if this is not really a sporting event. Athens 2004’s Opening Ceremony was followed by 7.2 million viewers on average in France, the maximum for that event. The same goes for the Russian channel Pervy Kanal, that gathered 7.9 million viewers in Russia: the best OG audiences over the period in these markets.
Eurodata TV Worldwide points out that while the Football World Cup’s average audience is higher than the Olympic Games, the latter offers 30 times more hours of coverage.
Braun explains the audience gap is due to several factors. Whereas the FIFA World Cup concentrates its audience over 64 matches during one month with a maximum of seven matches played by one team, the Olympic Games broadcasts 28 different sports, involving more than 200 countries in only 17 days.
Furthermore, the Olympic Games offer a considerable broadcasting time to less popular sports that ordinarily have little TV airtime and only a few of them, such as basketball and swimming, can claim international superstars.
“The higher scores are reached when the events gather three elements: One Nation – One Hero –One Goal. Nevertheless, the context remains crucial and hosting International event is still the best way to achieve maximum audience levels.”
Eurodata TV Worldwide will offer: Daily viewing figures for over 80 countries around the world of programmes linked to the Beijing 2008
Olympic Games and European Football Championship held in Switzerland and Austria. It will then publish data on these two major competitions in the “Sport On TV Key Facts” report in September.
