Eurosport Nets Best Ever French Open
Record breaking audience figures made the 2014 French Open the best ever on Eurosport. The tournament attracted an average live audience of 1.36 million European viewers on Eurosport, a rise of 17% on the 2012 tournament, which held the previous record.
Maria Sharapova’s victory over Simona Halep was the most watched women’s tennis match in Eurosport’s history with an average live audience of 3.8m viewers (+ 24% vs 2012 WTA Miami final Radwanska – Sharapova, the previous best match).
The men’s final which saw Rafael Nadal triumph for the 9th time at Roland Garros was the best ever French Open final on Eurosport with over 4.1m viewers in Europe and the second best ever tennis match on the channel, just behind the 2012 Australian Open final Nadal v Djokovic (4,3m).
Eurosport also achieved success in audience reach for the tournament. A total of 60.7 million different European viewers tuned in vs 58.8m in 2013 – making it the second best ever Grand Slam reach on Eurosport and Eurosport 2, narrowly behind the 61.2m record (2012 French Open).
Online, over 1.3m daily users visited the French Open section of Eurosport’s websites on the web and on mobile.
Jean-Thierry Augustin, Eurosport Group CEO, said: ‘To have the best-ever French Open this year is a fantastic achievement for the whole Eurosport team. The strategy to identify and secure exclusivity in specific European markets on key properties has delivered the expected results. The French Open is definitely one of those key properties. Our on-air coverage has been excellent and clearly matched viewers expectations who enjoyed some incredible tennis and great analysis from our experts. It is especially pleasing to achieve this record in our 25th year, which also marks the 25th broadcast of the French Open on our channels.’
