FIBA Basketball

    EUROBASKET - High TV figures reflect tournament's quality

    KAUNAS (EuroBasket 2011) - EuroBasket 2011 arguably will go into the history books as the most competitive and enthralling edition of the biennial event. The mass interest in the tournament is well reflected in some impressive television viewing figures. Here are some of them. Spanish channel La Sexta's live coverage of Spain's win over France in ...

    KAUNAS (EuroBasket 2011) - EuroBasket 2011 arguably will go into the history books as the most competitive and enthralling edition of the biennial event.

    The mass interest in the tournament is well reflected in some impressive television viewing figures. Here are some of them.

    Spanish channel La Sexta's live coverage of Spain's win over France in Sunday's Final was watched by an average audience of 4.73 million viewers.

    To put it in context: at the time of the game, almost a third of all people watching TV in Spain were tuned in to the Final, with the audience peaking at 5.96 million at 21:23.

    Overall, the game ranked as the eighth most-watched programme of the year to date on La Sexta.

    In France, the Final attracted a total of 2.90 million viewers with two channels - France 4 and Canal + Sport - broadcasting it.

    France 4, the free-to-air channel, registered an average viewing audience of 1.90 million people in what was France's first EuroBasket silver medal game since 1949. The broadcast ranks as the highest average programme audience ever registered for the digital-only channel.

    Meanwhile, Canal + Sport, the pay television channel, simulcasted the game and got an estimated viewing audience of 1.05 million, for the second highest audience in its history.

    It was the best audience for a basketball game in France since the 1993 Euroleague Final between Limoges and Benetton Treviso for which five million tuned in.

    The high viewing figures were not limited to just the Final.

    La Sexta provide live coverage of all 11 of Spain's games, with each one viewed by at least 1.1 million people.

    Last Friday's Semi-Final against F.Y.R. of Macedonia was watched by an average of 2.19 million people, while the Preliminary Round clash with Turkey attracted an average audience of 1.92 million.

    F.Y.R. of Macedonia came to Lithuania with an impressive contingent of fans following them every step of their amazing journey.

    Those who could not make the journey did pay close attention to their team's progress.

    Their narrow defeat at the hands of Russia in the Bronze Medal game was watched by a quarter of the adult population, with an average 480,000 viewers. The game had the highest viewing share of the year in the country.

    Host nation Lithuania's Quarter-Final against that same F.Y.R. of Macedonia side was closely followed by 842,000 viewers, ranking it as the highest sports rating in seven years and the third highest since audience measurement was first established in the country in 2000.

    Only the 2003 EuroBasket Final against Spain and the 2004 Olympics Semi-Final against the USA had higher ratings.

    The clash was also followed extremely closely in the F.Y.R. of Macedonia, with an astonishing one in five inhabitants tuning in to watch the game. Every second person watching TV at the time of the game were taking in the action from Kaunas.

    Germany's Second Round encounter with hosts Lithuania also performed very well, attracting the largest audience of EuroBasket 2011 in Germany.

    An average 998,000 viewers tuned in to watch the game, ranking as the second highest-ever FIBA audience in the country.

    Only the 2005 EuroBasket Final between Greece and Germany attracted more viewers (1.35 million).

    The live broadcast of the contest was as one of the most-watched sports programmes transmitted by SPORT1 this year.

    In Serbia, the same game attracted an average audience of 1.053 million viewers, its highest for the entire tournament.

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