Collins Cup sees 5x audience growth
October 25, 2021
The Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) has announced global broadcast viewing figures for The Collins Cup, the PTO’s inaugural flagship event which took place on August 28th in Šamorín, near Bratislava, Slovakia, which have surpassed expectations.
The PTO has worked alongside YouGov Sport – global sports, sponsorship and entertainment research company – to gather audience data and fan insight of the inaugural Collins Cup.
The game-changing new race format for triathlon, modeled after the Ryder Cup saw teams of Internationals, European, and US athletes pitted against one another in a first of its kind format for the sport. The new format resulted in phenomenal viewing figures moving it closer to long established properties like tennis and golf.
In deals brokered internally by PTO Media and by IMG, a cumulative event audience of close to 7 million across live and highlights tuned in to watch The Collins Cup, with close to 1000 hours of broadcast coverage aired live and on demand in over 165 countries, 22 languages, covering 400 million households. Digital, social media video views and primetime news coverage added further worldwide reach and engagement around the event in the build up, during and post event.
The Collins Cup app was downloaded 35,000 times and The Collins Cup website and live second screen data tool data had over 200k users on event day as fans looked to consume live and on demand content across PTO’s own channels.
The biggest broadcasters around the world partnered with the PTO on The Collins Cup, including Eurosport and Discovery+, Fox Sports Australia, Sky Sport New Zealand, FujiTV, BeinSports, CBS, CBC in Canada, BT Sport, SuperSport, Tencent in China and Starhub Singapore. Further highlights deals have been agreed with Sports Italia, ECLAT in Asia and SABC in South Africa.
In addition to the live and highlights broadcast the PTO produced build up programming including two Collins Cup countdown shows presented by Charlie Webster and the PTO’s two-part documentary, Beyond Human, produced by Noah Media Group, which has been recently nominated for a Broadcast Sport Award. These programmes were distributed across PTO the YouTube channel, PTO athletes channels and to PTO’s broadcast partners, including a premier on Eurosport 1. In total PTO’s shoulder programming generated a further 3 million in audience showing the value of non-live programming.
However, the stand out deal for the PTO was securing full live and localised coverage on Eurosport 2 and highlights on Eurosport 1. Both the live and the highlights achieved fantastic ratings across the Eurosport Discovery+ network which delivered new audiences and a varied demographic.
Hillary Mandel, EVP, Head of North Americas & Global Partnerships, IMG, added: “The Collins Cup demonstrated there was an appetite for a new format in the sport of triathlon. There’s no doubt the competition between the three teams featuring the best triathletes in the world helped drive engagement on linear and digital platforms.”
Charlie Dundas, Commercial Director at YouGov Sport said, “We were delighted to see the reach of the inaugural Collins Cup. This new format has proved to be a huge hit in the triathlon world but has also demonstrated that the sport is appealing to the general sports enthusiast too.”
Tim Godfrey, Chief Marketing Officer at Professional Triathletes Organisation, said: “We are thrilled that so many people around the world consumed the inaugural Collins Cup. Our athletes have some of the most compelling stories in sport so we are delighted to give them the platform to showcase their talents.”