CYCLING ON TV IN 2008: HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE WATCHING?

• Tuesday, 4 November 2008
• Lionel Birnie
• 0 Comments

British fans had access to more cycling coverage on television this year than ever before.

As well as Eurosport’s coverage of the major tours and Classics, the BBC showed the World Championships on the track and road, the Olympic Games and the World Cup at the weekend.

ITV4’s coverage of the Tour de France was complemented by highlights of the Tour of Ireland and Tour of Britain too.

Sky’s sponsorship of British Cycling offers many possibilities for the future too. A major player in sports broadcaster, Sky wants in on the Olympic Games action in time for 2012 and signing up with Britain’s most successful sport was one obvious way to do that.

Only time will tell whether Sky also bids for the rights to show major events, although cycling’s fans and administrators alike should exercise caution in this respect. Although Sky is a major brand, both powerful and prestigious, it does not guarantee viewers.

Premier League football, the sport which towers above all others in terms of media coverage in this country, is at the heart of Sky Sports’ portfolio. However, the biggest audience for a live game this season is the 1.6 million who watched arguably the most attractive fixture – Manchester United versus Chelsea. More than double that tuned into BBC2’s highlights show Match of the Day later that evening (September 26).

The BBC has delivered big audiences for cycling this season, according to figures obtained from BARB, the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board.

Viewing figures for cycling events at the Olympic Games were routinely above two million, with a peak of 4.45m for coverage on Saturday, August 16, the day Chris Hoy won the Keirin and Bradley Wiggins the individual pursuit.

Audiences for the World Championship track meeting in Manchester (March 26-30) were extremely healthy too, with 1.1m watching Sunday afternoon’s live coverage on BBC2 and 1.7m tuning in to BBC1 on Saturday afternoon to see, among other things, Wiggins and Mark Cavendish win the Madison.

That’s proof that more people can watch cycling on terrestrial television than the biggest football fixture in England on a pay-per-view satellite and cable station.

Figures for the recent World Cup track meeting are not yet available, but the BBC was hoping to capitalise on the post-Beijing feel-good factor surrounding cycling.

ITV4 currently holds the rights to the Tour de France and its mix of live weekend broadcasts and weekday highlights show in an early evening slot brought in between 250,000 and 500,000 viewers. Good audiences, but still some way short of the million Channel 4’s coverage, which ended in 1999, used to deliver. The Tour of Britain also enjoyed healthy figures, peaking at 250,000, but still some way short of the Tour de France figures.

Although ITV4 is a free to air channel, viewers do need to have a Freeview box or similar system to receive it.

British Eurosport is included in some, but not all, cable and satellite packages and it shows more cycling than any other broadcaster.

It is perhaps surprising that the Giro d’Italia delivered the company’s best results – until you consider that many potential viewers are perhaps lured away by ITV4.

The biggest audience for a cycle race on British Eurosport in 2008 was a mountain stage of the Giro d’Italia – the one where Russia’s Vasili Kiriyenka won and Britain’s Steve Cummings was fourth. This was a stage held on a Friday, bucking the trend of weekend audiences being considerably bigger.

That Giro stage was the only cycling broadcast among the top 20 most-watched events on Eurosport. A look at that particular table shows why motor cycling so often takes preference over cycling. Motorcycling in one form or other brought 14 of Eurosport’s top 20 audience figures in Britain.

Some of the coverage of the Classics brings very small audiences – just 40,000 for Liège-Bastogne-Liège, for example. However, British Eurosport’s spring schedule is usually a mess. It’s almost impossible to guarantee the Classics will be on when the schedule says they will be.

It may seem obvious, but the lesson for cycling is that the biggest audiences are delivered by the broadcasters with the most reach. And that means terrestrial or widely-available free-to-air stations.

The advent of interactive technology means that at the touch of the red button a wide array of options can be presented to the viewer – as the BBC proved with its complete live coverage of the men’s and women’s road races at the World Championships in Varese in September.

Viewing figures for these events are not available but the fact remains, as the country switches over to digital television the red button option becomes available to more and more households, whereas pay-per-view channels and those that are technically free but are only included in the more expensive packages can only deliver small audiences.

Below are the audiences for cycling programmes on British television in 2008, according to BARB and the BBC.

Viewers	Event	Date
4.45m	Olympic Games track cycling (Hoy wins Keirin, Wiggins wins pursuit)	Sat, Aug 16
1.7m	World Track Championships on BBC1	Sat, Mar 29
1.18m	World Track Championships on BBC2	Sun, Mar 30

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Viewers	Event	Date
198,000	Kiriyenka wins Giro d’Italia stage 19	Fri, May 30
143,000	Griepel and Cavendish one-two Giro stage 17	Wed, May 28
140,000	Moncoutie wins at Pla de Beret Vuelta a Espana	Sun, Sept 7
133,000	Cavendish wins in Toulouse Tour de France stage 8	Sat, Jul 12
130,000	Ricco wins at Bagneres, Tour de France stage 9	Sun, Jul 13
123,000	Devolder wins Tour of Flanders	Sun, Apr 6
114,000	Sella wins at Marmolada, Giro stage 15	Sun, May 25
105,000	Steegmans wins final stage, Tour de France	Sun, Jul 27
97,000	Contador wins Vuelta a Espana stage 14	Sun, Sept 14
94,000	Sastre wins at Alpe d’Huez, Tour stage 17	Wed, Jul 23
91,000	Burghardt wins Tour de France stage 18	Thu, Jul 24
82,000	Dessel wins at Jausiers, Tour stage 16	Tue, Jul 22
78,000	Boonen wins Paris-Roubaix	Sun, Apr 13
78,000	Luis Leon Sanchez wins Tour stage 7 at Aurillac	Fri, Jul 11
76,000	Valverde wins Tour de France stage 1	Sat, Jul 5
73,000	Bennati wins Giro d’Italia stage 9	Sun, May 18
72,000	Ricco wins at Super Besse, Tour de France	Thu, Jul 10
72,000	Final Tour de France time trial	Sat, Jul 27
72,000	Men’s Olympic Games road race	Sat, Aug 9
70,000	Cunego wins Amstel Gold Race	Sun, Apr 20
69,000	Cancellara wins Milan-San Remo	Sat, Mar 22
67,000	Chavanel wins Tour de France stage 19	Fri, Jul 25
65,000	Women’s Olympic Games road race	Sun, Aug 10
62,000	Ricco wins Giro d’Italia stage 8	Sat, May 17
61,000	Sella wins at Pampeago, Giro stage 16	Sat, May 24
58,000	Slipstream win Giro d’Italia stage 1	Sat, May 10
58,000	Ricco wins Giro d’Italia stage 2	Sun, May 11
55,000	Hushovd wins Tour de France stage 2	Sun, Jul 6
41,000	Boonen wins Vuelta a Espana stage 16	Tue, Sept 16
40,000	Valverde wins Liège-Bastogne-Liège	Sun, Apr 27

EUROSPORT’S TOP 20
The top 20 most-watched sports broadcasts on British Eurosport this year, up to the end of October.

Viewers	Event	Date
269,000	Motor cycling, Moto GP	June
229,000	Volleyball, Olympic qualifier	January
229,000	Tennis, French Open	May
220,000	Motor cycling, Moto GP	March
220,000	Motor cycling, Moto GP	September
218,000	Motor cycling, Moto GP	June
214,000	Football, African Nations Cup	February
208,000	Motor cycling, Moto GP	March
204,000	Motor cycling, Moto GP	September
203,000	Motor cycling, Moto GP	April
202,000	Motor cycling, Moto GP	August
200,000	Motor cycling, Moto GP	May
198,000	Cycling, Giro d’Italia stage 19	June
196,000	Motor cycling, Superbike World Champs	August
194,000	Motor cycling, Moto GP	March
192,000	Motor cycling, Moto GP	April
191,000	Snooker, UK Masters	January
188,000	Motor cycling, Moto GP	June
186,000	Motor cycling, Moto GP	August
184,000	Tennis, ATP Tour	January

Notes
All figures courtesy of BARB (Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board). Only programmes ranked in the week’s top ten for each channel are included. There is no data available for the week ending July 20, the middle week of the Tour de France.

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All Tour de France, unless stated. Live and highlights programmes included. ITV 4 showed a nightly highlights programme for the Tour de France, Tour of Britain and Tour of Ireland, plus selected weekend Tour de France stages live.

Viewers	Event	Date
502,000	Burghardt wins at Saint-Etienne	Thu, Jul 24
496,000	Dessel wins at Jausiers	Tue, Jul 22
487,000	Luis Sanchez wins at Aurillac	Fri, Jul 11
467,000	Piepoli wins Hautacam stage	Mon, Jul 14
459,000	Ricco wins at Super Besse	Thu, Jul 10
448,000	No. 4 for Cavendish at Nimes	Fri, Jul 18
438,000	Cavendish wins his third stage in Narbonne	Thu, Jul 17
411,000	Sastre wins at Alpe d’Huez	Wed, July 23
393,000	Arvesen wins at Foix	Wed, Jul 16
380,000	Chavanel wins at Montlucon	Fri, Jul 25
362,000	Dumoulin wins stage 3	Mon, Jul 7
358,000	Cavendish’s first win, at Chateauroux	Wed, Jul 9
348,000	Freire wins at Digne	Sat, Jul 19
307,000	Schumacher wins Cholet TT	Tue, Jul 8
290,000	Gerrans wins at Prato Nevoso	Sun, Jul 20
285,000	First rest day wrap-up show	Tue, Jul 15
273,000	Ricco wins at Bagnères-de-Bigorre	Sun, Jul 13
266,000	Second rest day wrap-up show	Mon, Jul 21
250,000	Petacchi wins Tour of Britain stage 6	Fri, Sept 12
248,000	Berges wins Tour of Britain stage at Burnham	Tue, Sept 9
234,000	Boasson Hagen wins Tour of Britain stage 5	Thur, Sept 11
231,000	Valverde wins stage 1	Sat, Jul 5
198,000	Tour of Ireland, final stage and wrap-up show	Sun, Aug 31

Notes
The Tour de France was the most-watched ITV4 programme during all three full weeks of the race. In week’s two and three, the Tour accounted for seven of the top 10 most-watched programmes on the channel.