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As part of the analysis of the past World Cup season FIS, together with its market research partner IFM Research GmbH from Karlsruhe (GER), has been reviewing the TV audience figures in the main ski markets. The initial evaluation, based on live and delayed coverage of the FIS World Cup tours in the 2008/09 season, has revealed some interesting facts.

For example, for the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup, the channel with the most viewers in the course of the season was ARD of Germany with a total of more than 85 million viewers. The channel with the highest market share was Austrian ORF 1 which averaged 50.2% for more than 105 hours of coverage.

The ladies World Cup competition with the highest number of viewers on a single channel was the ladies’ slalom competition in Zagreb (CRO) on 4th January which saw 4.76 million viewers on Germany’s ZDF. Similarly, the men’s slalom in Zagreb (CRO) on 6th January found a single-channel season record of 4.67 million viewers on ZDF.

For Ski Jumping, the channel with the most viewers for live and delayed coverage in the course of last season was Poland’s TVP 1 which recorded impressive 260 million viewers. The channel with the highest Ski Jumping market share was Norway’s NRK 1, with an average of 52.8%. The most viewers for a single competition on a single channel was achieved by ARD of Germany which had 5.8 million viewers for the traditional New Year’s competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen as part of the Four-Hills-Tournament on 1st January 2009.

The comparable figures for Cross-Country show that the channel with most viewers last season was Eurosport on which 73.5 million people watched the Viessmann FIS Cross-Country World Cup. The channel with the highest market share was Norway’s NRK with 54.4% average for more than 47 hours of live and delayed coverage. The one competition that reached the largest audience on a single channel was the men’s Final Climb on the Tour de Ski in Val di Fiemme (ITA) on 4th January as 4.76 million people watched on Germany’s ZDF as Dario Cologna (SUI) claimed his first big title.

ZDF is also the channel where Nordic Combined found the largest number of viewers as 49 million people followed the DKB FIS Nordic Combined World Cup 2008/09 season. The highest market share was again recorded by Norway NRK with 45.5%. The greatest number of viewers for one competition on a single channel was the ski jumping portion of the World Cup competition in Val di Fiemme (ITA) on 10th January during which a TV audience of 4.87 million followed the competition.

(Source: FIS)