Maybe track actually is popular in Europe: 20% of French tvs were tuned to Euros when MMB got DQd in steeple

European athletics wrote:sessions averaged a live audience of 2.6 million, with more than 4 million on Thursday 14 August – a 20.8 percent market share – when Benjamin Compaoré won the men’s triple jump and Yoann Kowal won the 3000m

In France, excluding the first evening, the evening steeplechase after Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad’s disqualification.

The highest average live audience for the BBC was 2.2 million on Friday 15 August as Adam Gemili struck gold in the 200m.

In Poland, evening sessions averaged on TVP1 and TVP2 combined about 1.5 million viewers, with more than 2.3 million on Friday 15 August when Adam Kszczot won the men’s 800m final and Anita Wlodarczyk the women’s hammer.

And more than 4 milllion watched in Germany. Good stuff.

I am Irish and I can tell you very few people know who Ciaran O lionaird is. I thought the European Championships were great because they were broadcast on a non subscription TV station in full. The BBC broadcasts nearly every track meet and major road race except Boston in GB and if the BBC does not have it, Eurosport does. From what I understand, most meets in America are a PPV service.

This European way of broadcasting helps athletics profile. Everybody was going crazy here after Mark English's bronze in the Euros and it's things like that gets people watching when everyone who has a tv can watch for free. Athletics is still massively under-appreciated here because it has to fight it out with bigger sports like hurling, Gaelic football, rugby, soccer and boxing. 82,000 people will attend the all-Ireland final in hurling and football but only a few hundred went to the Cork City Sports meet where 6-7 runners went sub 4 for the mile. Kyle Merber winning in 3.55. The mile is a historic event for the Irish. We have so an incredible history in it for a country of only 4 million people.

Athletics is incredibly under-funded here. Ciaran gets a grant of only €20,000 a year and he is one of our most prominent athletes. Johnny Sexton (rugby player makes that in 2 weeks). Giovanni Trappitoni( ex-National soccer team manager made 2.5million euros from the government during his tenure as Manager). There is an explosion in running here right now and the government is ignoring it.

Sorry for the long winded post but I had to get that off my chest.

Netwerk Errer wrote:

From what I understand, most meets in America are a PPV service.

If by PPV you mean cable or satellite tv, then the answer is yes. The American way is to wait until something gets popular and then broadcast it on a station nobody gets. By holding that event hostage, they want all the "fans" to put pressure on their network provider to put that station on their "regular" package. If they can accomplish that, they know they can make money every month even off of the 97% of people who will never watch that particular station on a regular basis.

That's likely the main reason for the popularity, in Europe, that it is broadcast live on Free-To-Air television. Meets are also typically held during peak viewing hours, starting at 7 or 8pm. Daytime meetings force people to choose between other activities. Mainland Europeans are also active people themselves, so they can relate to people running. Case in point, the World Equestrian Games are currently being broadcast. Held during the daytime (obviously) and a sport where it takes money to compete. Little empathy and low viewing numbers.

The online coverage, and that available via the Eurovision app was great - thanks Spar. The BBC coverage was poor. As is their athletics coverage in general. Distance race starts and they cut away to show some recorded footage of a field event. Couldn't possibly have shown that instead of having their pundits filling the screens for the previous ten minutes... Yes being on TV and free means that there is a chance those without a previous interest in athletics may stumble upon it -but the overall quality of the production is poor, doubtful the conversion rate would be good. Although commentary must have been for those folks - all the best runners in the women's 1500 are at this event... Really Steve, really? Anyone buying into that and then watching the diamond league must have been plenty confused... Now if only Spar would promote the availability of the online/ app coverage in store maybe that could help the sport grow an audience...

Manchester wrote:

Netwerk Errer wrote:

I am Irish and I can tell you very few people know who Ciaran O lionaird is.

We have a different view of very few then... half my 10+ Irish friends no who he is. But they are all young males who play sports to some extent. Contrast to only a few American running geeks who would know Galen Rupp.

You make a great point. When Netwerk Errer posted I just thought of someone who really doesn't follow sports.

I'm that more Americans don't know who the top football players are.

My wife hates sports- she might know that Peyton Manning is a football player or just an athlete in general.

Of course it's popular, it was prime time viewing on 40 European networks.

Maybe the USATF should change the name of the sport to "athletics".

ZDF (Germany) 4.67 million

ARD (Germany)3.9 million

FT (France 2.6 million average, peak 4 million (20.8%)

BBC (UK) peak average 2.2 million.

In Poland, evening sessions averaged on TVP1 and TVP2 combined about 1.5 million viewers, with more than 2.3 million on Friday 15 August when Adam Kszczot won the men’s 800m final and Anita Wlodarczyk the women’s hammer.

Peak ratings

Finland 78%

Sweden 46%

France 28.5%

Switzerland 50.2%

Czech Republic 15%

Germany 19%

The BBC ratings peaked at an average of only 2.2 million on the Friday, only 7.7% but the Championship was in the shadow of the Commonwealth Games, which got much higher ratings.

The French one I put in the top section was the highest for an evening session. The one below was for the Sunday.