Strong debut for “LeMond on Tour” and La Course by the Tour de France
(Paris, France) Eurosport’s 25th consecutive Tour de France broadcast surpassed the 50 million viewer mark. Eurosport’s live broadcast of the inaugural “La Course by Le Tour de France“, an event gathering the elite of women’s cycling, also contributed to the strong audiences and was watched by 2.9 million different viewers.
This year’s live action was enhanced with daily expertise from three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond. His live show “LeMond on Tour”, which previewed each stage, debuted strongly with 17.6 million different viewers on Eurosport channels.
Cycling’s biggest race proved to be very succesful for Eurosport in key local markets. The 2014 edition of the Tour was the best in the French market since 2002. In Italy, home country of race winner Vincenzo Nibali, audiences showed a very positive trend increasing by 143% compared to 2013. In Poland Eurosport scored its best audience ever for the race and the Spanish audience increased by 33% this year.
Eurosport covered the 2014 edition of the Tour de France with a record 350 hours of broadcast on Eurosport and Eurosport 2, including over 90 hours of live TV, all in high definition.
Sources: AGF/GfK, BARB, SKO, MMS, TNS-Gallup, Kantar Media, Médiamétrie, Nielsen Audience Measurement Polska, Armadata/Kantar, Auditel – Techedge, Reach based on 60s.
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