Eurosport nets best ever French Open audience
June 13, 2014
Record breaking audience figures have made the 2014 French Open the best ever on Eurosport.
The tournament attracted an average live audience of 1.36 million European viewers* on Eurosport, a rise of 17 per cent on the 2012 tournament, which held the previous record.
Maria Sharapova’s victory over Simona Halep was the most watched women’s tennis match in Eurosport’s history with an average live audience of 3.8 million viewers (+ 24 per cent vs 2012 WTA Miami final Radwanska – Sharapova, previous best match).
The men’s final which saw Rafael Nadal triumph for the 9th time at Roland Garros was the best ever French Open final on Eurosport with over 4.1 million viewers in Europe and the second best ever tennis match on the channel, just behind the 2012 Australian Open final Nadal – Djokovic (4.3 million).
This year’s French Open saw the highest live average audience rises vs 2013 in Romania and Spain (both +128 per cent), UK (+79 per cent) and France (+49 per cent). Eurosport’s strategy of exclusivities in key markets such as Spain contributed to these figures alongside the performances of national heroes like Simona Halep, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray coupled with line-up Eurosport’s own world class consultants such as Mats Wilander, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Marion Bartoli and Henri Leconte.
Eurosport also achieved great success in audience reach for the tournament. A total of 60.7 million different European viewers tuned in vs 58.8 million in 2013 – making it the second best ever Grand Slam reach on Eurosport and Eurosport 2, narrowly behind the 61.2 million record (2012 French Open).
Eurosport’s in-house production made a key contribution to the event’s on-air success too. The exclusive daily live show “Game, Set and Mats”, hosted by Mats Wilander in evening primetime, reached 22.5 million different viewers throughout the tournament, +17 per cent vs 2013.
Online, over 1.3 million daily users visited the French Open section of Eurosport’s websites on the web and on mobile.
Jean-Thierry Augustin, Eurosport Group CEO, said: “To have the best-ever French Open this year is a fantastic achievement for the whole Eurosport team. The strategy to identify and secure exclusivity in specific European markets on key properties has delivered the expected results. The French Open is definitely one of those key properties. Our on-air coverage has been excellent and clearly matched viewers expectations who enjoyed some incredible tennis and great analysis from our experts. It is especially pleasing to achieve this record in our 25th year, which also marks the 25th broadcast of the French Open on our channels.”