Australian Open record audience for Eurosport
January 31, 2017
Eurosport’s exclusive coverage of the Australian Open peaked at 800,000 in the UK – as 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 per cent share, behind only BBC1. In pay television, Eurosport was the number one channel with a 17 per cent 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.”