European Championships Munich 2022 achieves huge cumulative media reach
The multi-sport European Championships Munich 2022 achieved a cumulative media reach of 5.4 billion across TV, online, print, and social media, according to research carried out by IRIS.
The total cumulative TV audience, plus online, print and social media reach in selected markets for Munich 2022 was 5.4 billion according to research carried out by IRIS.
The success on free-to-air television for the European Championships 2022 across the continent was mirrored in print, online and social media, with commissioned research carried out in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK showing huge additional reach through these channels.
While the European Championships 2022 achieved more than 750 million viewer hours on free-to-air TV and digital platforms – the equivalent of every person in Europe watching at least one hour of the innovative multi-sport event – the total cumulative TV audience was just shy of 1.2 billion. News programming about the European Championships by both rights-holding and non rights-holding broadcasters made a major contribution to the total cumulative audience, with news broadcast items and news broadcast time increasing significantly between the first edition in Glasgow and Berlin in 2018 and Munich 2022, with the event becoming particularly more relevant in news broadcasts of channels with a high reach such as Das Erste or ZDF in Germany and BBC One in the UK.
With a share of 32% of the total reach of the event, print media was the strongest medium measured by this KPI with a reach of 1.69 billion from 4,500 print articles in 117 publications.
A total of 1.46 billion people were reached online through 33,000 articles published on 1,500 websites.
Social media posting around Munich 2022 generated a potential reach of 1.04 billion – 100 million more than Glasgow/Berlin 2018.
‘Never seen before’ social media tonality
Of 33,000 social media posts analysed, 98.5 percent were positive or neutral, with a 7% increase in positive messages between the first and second editions of the event.
This overwhelmingly positive perception of the European Championships is, according to research analysts, almost unheard of for major sporting events.
Social media tonality for the European Championships Munich 2022 was hugely positive.
Public perceive European Championships as entertaining, inspiring and prestigious
Researched public perception of the European Championships Munich 2022 by Nielsen Sports strongly matched the core values defined in the vision and mission statements of the new generation multi-sport event.
Consumer survey participants in Sweden, Netherlands, UK, Poland, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy perceived Munich 2022 positively, characterizing the event as entertaining, diverse, challenging, ambitious, inspiring and prestigious.
Brand awareness of the European Championships increased from the first edition in Glasgow/Berlin in 2018 to the second edition in Munich in 2022, closing the gap with other major events.
Awareness of European Championships increases across continent
Brand awareness of the European Championships leapfrogged other major sporting events. There was an increase of 6% in ‘brand awareness’ and 4% in ‘interest’ between Glasgow/Berlin 2018 and Munich 2022 (from 54% to 60% and 31% to 35%). This increase meant the European Championships also closed the gap in terms of brand awareness and interest of the event compared to mega events such as the Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup, UEFA EUROS, and Tour de France.
The increase in terms of real numbers means that 152.2 million were ‘aware of’ and 89.4 million people ‘interested in’ the European Championships in the eight researched markets. Considering the total population of these countries, there is further potential for the European Championships to appeal to even greater audiences.