Provisional television viewing figures for the recently-concluded 31st European Athletics Indoor Championships are extremely encouraging, says European Athletics President Hansjörg Wirz.
Initial feedback from the European Broadcasting Union has seen strong live ratings reported in major television markets United Kingdom and France, along with impressive ratings in Sweden, Netherlands and Czech Republic, following the conclusion of the three-day Paris championships on Sunday evening.
An impressive British team performance sparked interest among viewers, with BBC, the public-service broadcaster, registering average audiences of up to 1.53 million and 1.2 million for its live coverage on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
The Saturday afternoon events in particular, which included Mo Farah winning the men’s 3000m final, attracted strong audiences for BBC, with an average market share of 14.16 percent watching on BBC1.
With Renaud Lavillenie turning on the style in the pole vault with a world-leading, national- and championship-record 6.03m effort on Saturday and Teddy Tamgho breaking the triple jump indoor world record with two 17.92-metre marks on Sunday, host broadcaster France Télévisions attracted average audiences of 1.2 million (11.8 percent market share) and 1.3 million (11.1 percent).
Swedish Television had an average live audience of 580,000 (37.30 percent market share) on Saturday when Christian Olsson competed in the triple jump qualification.
The next European Athletics Indoor Championships in 2013 will be held in Göteborg, Sweden.
NED 1 in the Netherlands saw an average of up to 724,000 viewers tune in to live coverage on Saturday (25.10 percent market share) and up to 650,000 (19.70 percent) on Sunday.
An average audience of up to 357,000 watched live coverage of Saturday’s events on CT4 in the Czech Republic, with the market share reaching 20.81 percent as Denisa Rosolová won the women’s 400m final in a personal-best time.
“We are extremely encouraged by this initial feedback and pleased that the European Athletics Indoor Championships continues to be an extremely attractive product for television audiences,” said President Wirz. “These initial figures are estimates and we will have a much more complete and accurate figure in the coming weeks as we receive information from all 25 national broadcasters in Europe who televised our event.”