Eurosport aces Australian Open as 800,000 UK viewers tune in for men’s final

Eurosport’s live and exclusive coverage of the Australian Open peaked at 800,000 in the UK – as tennis legends Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal went head to head for the first Grand Slam title of the year. It was the highest UK audience ever for the tournament on Eurosport without a British national playing.

As audience peaked for the epic encounter, Eurosport was the second biggest channel in the UK taking a 10% share, behind only BBC1. In pay television, Eurosport was the number one channel with a 17% share.

With the game’s greatest rivals facing each other in a Grand Slam final for the first time since 2011, Eurosport’s coverage of the event reached 20.7 million sport fans across Europe via Eurosport and Discovery-owned free-to-air channel, DMAX, in Spain.

The dream final between two legends of the game has become Eurosport’s most-watched tennis match of all-time and the second most watched sport event in Eurosport’s history. 

Peter Hutton, Eurosport CEO, said: “The viewing figures for the men’s final crown a fantastic first Grand Slam of the year for Eurosport. It’s no surprise this is the most-watched tennis match ever on our platforms as Roger vs Rafa is one of the greatest rivalries in sports history and the comeback stories of these two great champions has been compelling. Let’s hope they can continue this amazing rivalry throughout 2017 where fans will be able to watch every Grand Slam match from every court on Eurosport.”

Eurosport’s coverage of the final has also broken local records receiving the highest ever amount of average viewers for a Eurosport programme in both Spain and the Netherlands. In Spain 610,000 viewers tuned in to support their local hero, Rafa Nadal. Meanwhile in the Netherlands over half a million (503,000) viewers watched the match, equating to 23.2% of the total television audience for the time slot.

Peter Hutton, adds: “We aim to match the quality on the court with quality off it and we continue to deliver on that promise. This tournament has been full of surprises and fairytale storylines and we’ve had every angle covered. Local viewing figures throughout the tournament have shown that our strategy of increased investment in local production and talent is paying dividends.”

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Toby Marriott
Toby Marriott 91 posts

Toby is an Account Executive at Snack Media and Editor of Digital Sport. Follow him on Twitter @TobyMarriott

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