kotto_bass
06 Jul 2004, 02:57 PM
By Jeffrey Goldfarb, European Media Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - This year's European Championship showed that soccer can kick American football around when it came to attracting television viewers.
About half the 31 matches from the just-ended Euro 2004 championships are expected to have drawn more than 93 million viewers each, after the final data are tallied, topping the TV audience for this year's Super Bowl, typically the single most popular sporting event.
"It's like having 15 Super Bowls," said Kevin Alavy, an analyst with Initiative Media, the media planning and buying firm owned by Interpublic Group of Cos. Inc. that compiled the TV watching information from 52 markets in 49 countries. Initiative released the early data on Tuesday.
The audiences buck the trend of viewer fragmentation in an increasingly multichannel world and provide a rare conglomeration of consumers at one time.
"If you're an advertiser or sponsor, this is a relatively unique opportunity to communicate with tens of millions of viewers in one hit," Alavy said. "That's an incredibly powerful position that few other programs can offer."
Soccer is played with few stoppages, however, which limits advertisers and the soccer championships are broadcast on ad-free public television in many countries. Advertisers pay upwards of $2.4 million for a 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl, which frequently breaks for ads.
Eight main sponsors, including fast-food chain McDonald's Corp. and soft drinks seller Coca-Cola Co., paid more than $15 million each to be associated with the Euro 2004 tournament.
Initiative is still awaiting figures from Russia, where about 27 million people were watching in the early rounds, for 13 of the 31 matches. Once those figures come in, Sunday's match between underdog finalists Greece and Portugal will likely boast a global TV audience of between 130 million and 150 million people.
Some 2.5 billion individuals, or about 80 million per match, watched the quadrennial soccer tournament, in which traditional powerhouses England, France, Germany and Italy were knocked out before the semifinal round and Greece crowned champion after they defeated the host country.
The audiences were even larger than final reports will indicate because none of the individual country measurements includes viewers in bars and pubs.
The group stage match between France and England drew 118 million viewers. Germany's match against Holland in the early stages brought a television audience of 111 million. Both figures include Russian viewers.
The 2002 World Cup soccer championships suffered from fewer TV viewers because the matches were played in Japan and Korea, making it harder for many supporters to tune in. The Euro 2004 audiences topped those from the 2000 tournament by more than 15 percent, according to preliminary calculations.
LONDON (Reuters) - This year's European Championship showed that soccer can kick American football around when it came to attracting television viewers.
About half the 31 matches from the just-ended Euro 2004 championships are expected to have drawn more than 93 million viewers each, after the final data are tallied, topping the TV audience for this year's Super Bowl, typically the single most popular sporting event.
"It's like having 15 Super Bowls," said Kevin Alavy, an analyst with Initiative Media, the media planning and buying firm owned by Interpublic Group of Cos. Inc. that compiled the TV watching information from 52 markets in 49 countries. Initiative released the early data on Tuesday.
The audiences buck the trend of viewer fragmentation in an increasingly multichannel world and provide a rare conglomeration of consumers at one time.
"If you're an advertiser or sponsor, this is a relatively unique opportunity to communicate with tens of millions of viewers in one hit," Alavy said. "That's an incredibly powerful position that few other programs can offer."
Soccer is played with few stoppages, however, which limits advertisers and the soccer championships are broadcast on ad-free public television in many countries. Advertisers pay upwards of $2.4 million for a 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl, which frequently breaks for ads.
Eight main sponsors, including fast-food chain McDonald's Corp. and soft drinks seller Coca-Cola Co., paid more than $15 million each to be associated with the Euro 2004 tournament.
Initiative is still awaiting figures from Russia, where about 27 million people were watching in the early rounds, for 13 of the 31 matches. Once those figures come in, Sunday's match between underdog finalists Greece and Portugal will likely boast a global TV audience of between 130 million and 150 million people.
Some 2.5 billion individuals, or about 80 million per match, watched the quadrennial soccer tournament, in which traditional powerhouses England, France, Germany and Italy were knocked out before the semifinal round and Greece crowned champion after they defeated the host country.
The audiences were even larger than final reports will indicate because none of the individual country measurements includes viewers in bars and pubs.
The group stage match between France and England drew 118 million viewers. Germany's match against Holland in the early stages brought a television audience of 111 million. Both figures include Russian viewers.
The 2002 World Cup soccer championships suffered from fewer TV viewers because the matches were played in Japan and Korea, making it harder for many supporters to tune in. The Euro 2004 audiences topped those from the 2000 tournament by more than 15 percent, according to preliminary calculations.