German fans are the most loyal, lowest audience of the FIFA World Cup in France 2 Aug 2010

Germany comes to a standstill when the national team plays: German spectators were glued to the TV supporting their national team on TV in FIFA World Cup matches: the average market share generated was over 82%. Exactly the opposite happened in France: just 62% of the French audience watched “Les Bleus”, and less than one third watched the FIFA World Cup in general as the consequence of a distinct lack of affection of French citizens towards the World Cup in general.

In the U.K., the average market share for the ”Three Lions” was over 68%. These are some of the findings of SPORT+MARKT’s analysis of the free-to-air TV audiences of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in six European countries. The varying behaviour of the European audiences at the event are demonstrated. During the FIFA World Cup, “football” equals England games in the U.K.. Although in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the English national team games may not be of high interest, more than 15 million British TV viewers watched the matches of the “Three Lions”.

Just over than 4 million watched the other matches. “No matter if England is playing in the group stage or the last 16: the TV audience is always impressive”, comments Gareth Moore, U.K. and Ireland Director SPORT+MARKT. “The second game of the group phase against Algeria attracted even more than the knock-out game against the major rivals, Germany - but just because many English fans chose public viewing for the big-match!”. 

A European comparison shows that whilst in Spain and Italy, only the best games were shown free-to-air, which suggests a higher market share for the games analysed, in Germany, France and Switzerland, the games were all  broadcast on free-to-air TV as in England. Nevertheless, the U.K. figures remained lower. “In other European countries, the FIFA World cup is more of a TV event than in the U.K., where if England is not playing, interest decreases significantly.” In all the markets analysed, the top audience was a national team match. Only in Switzerland, the final between the Netherlands and Spain led the ranking. Furthermore, half of Swiss spectators watched all the games not involving the Swiss national team, evidencing the great passion for football in general in the country.

According to FIFA policy, despite the competition of pay TV in some countries, all the most important games at the FIFA World Cup were broadcast free-to-air. Therefore, it is no surprise that the average market share for the final was almost 70% across the most important European markets.

Kontakt
SPORT+MARKT AG
Luxemburger Straße 299
50939 Cologne
Phone: +49 (0) 221 / 430 73 177
Leonardo.giammarioli@sportundmarkt.com
www.sportundmarkt.com