Live sporting events buck the trend of fragmentation

Major live sporting events, such as NFL Super Bowl and the UEFA Champions League Final, are reaching larger global television audiences than ever before. This is the latest finding from global research conducted by Initiative’s specialist consultancy futures sport + entertainment.

The seventh annual ViewerTrack survey of the world’s most watched TV sporting events, researched and produced by futures sport + entertainment, found that while TV audiences continue to fragment around the world, televised coverage of ‘premier’ live sporting events is bucking the trend and pulling in ever greater number of viewers each year.

Two sporting events that have seen significantly healthy growth in audience figures are the UEFA Champions League Final and the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships Men’s Singles Final. The 2009 UEFA Champions League Final achieved an average live global audience of 109 million people and a total audience of 206 million. This represents average audience growth of 4% compared with 2008, and 19% on 2007. The Wimbledon Men’s Singles Final saw growth of 14% in its average live global audience between 2008 and 2009, taking it to 29 million people. Its total audience was 89 million people.

Kevin Alavy, Director, Initiative, futures sport + entertainment - and author of the report - said that major sporting events are cutting across more geographical and cultural boundaries than before and their appeal is getting ever broader: “As emerging markets – particularly in Asia – become more affluent, so their populations have more leisure time and they are choosing to watch sporting events on television.”

The findings of ViewerTrack also point to an impact on the growth of VOD services. Whereas TV audiences around the world are increasingly choosing to time-shift their viewing of entertainment and factual programming, they are still, overwhelmingly, opting to watch major sporting events as live broadcasts. This has significant implications for advertisers looking to reach large, global audiences at a single point in time.

ViewerTrack also reveals that of the 20+ top sporting events that it monitors annually, it is the biggest televised events that are growing the most in terms of viewership. The global audience for the UEFA Champions League Final has grown by a massive 74% since 2004. The Super Bowl’s global audience increased by 7% over the same period. As the vast majority of this audience is US-based, this increase represents impressive growth in one of the world’s most fragmented TV markets.

“The growth of these major sporting events is good news for advertisers and sponsors,” added Alavy. “Rights holders are becoming more savvy about what they need to do to drive audiences, and the economic conditions are becoming ever more favorable for major sporting events. As the East accounts for some of the largest – and fastest growing – populations in the world, there is huge potential for major sporting events to tap into these increasingly affluent audiences.”

According to ViewerTrack, the two sporting events that have enjoyed particularly strong growth in Asia are the UEFA Champions League Final and the Wimbledon Men’s Singles Final.  In 2004, just 6% of the audience for the Champions League Final came from Asia, but by 2009 this figure had doubled. Likewise, the proportion of the global audience for the Men’s Singles Finals accounted for by Asia rose from 28% in 2007 to 31% in 2009.

Ranking of top ten events, by average audience (millions)

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