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Eurosport's coverage of cycling's most prestigious event broke two audience records and drew sensational reach ratings across Europe, the Eurosport Group announced friday.

The channel scored a best-ever average LIVE audience of 1.8 million viewers for the whole 21-stage Tour de France which ended Sunday July 26 − double that of the 2008 Tour.

That landmark follows closely on the channel's record average LIVE audience for a single stage, which was achieved during the 15th stage of the Tour on Sunday 19 July, when Eurosport drew 2.8 million viewers.

Both these record feats serve to underline the channel's commitment to, and reputation for, top quality LIVE sports broadcasting. Fifty per cent of Eurosport's overall sports coverage is LIVE, with at least 8 hours of LIVE broadcasts per day − more than any other sports TV channel in Europe.

In addition to the record LIVE ratings, Eurosport also drew an excellent overall reach of 63.3 million* different viewers during its 156 hours of Tour de France coverage (including LIVE, highlights, magazine shows and news).

Arnaud Simon, Broadcast Director, says: "We are delighted to have broken these major Tour records. We have unrivalled LIVE coverage of cycling's biggest races and our sport and broadcasting expertise is one of the reasons for these record audience ratings.

"Eurosport's comprehensive coverage of the stages goes beyond any other channel. From across Europe to parts of Asia-Pacific, we are broadcasting this great event in high definition (HD), which brings subscribers spectacular images and greatly enhances the enjoyment of the race. Also, our complementary editorial and news shows, such as Planet Armstrong, Tour de France Flash and our highlights programmes are creating a very strong, stand-out TV package that is highly attractive to viewers."

Eurosport also scored excellent across-the-board ratings increases in its pan-European territories, most notably in Spain, where it broke a best average LIVE audience record, and in Germany, which saw a strong 3-fold increase on 2008 in the same category.

Tremendous audience ratings were also recorded online, with an average of 1.6 million viewers visiting Eurosport's network of websites during the Tour de France (4-26 July), an increase of 54 per cent on last year. The Tour also accounted for 5 million online visitors and 60 million pages viewed.