Free-to-air TV coverage of European Championships Munich 2022 ‘an outstanding success’

Free-to-air TV coverage of the European Championships Munich 2022 has been rated an “outstanding success,” with more than 430 million hours of live coverage of the multi-sport event viewed in the eight key markets that have reported figures to date.

The European Championships Munich 2022 ended, after 11 days of exciting, high-quality action involving nine different sports, on Sunday 21 August.

The eight key markets that reported viewing figures so far are: Germany (ARD & ZDF); Italy (RAI); Netherlands (NOS); Norway (NRK); Poland (TVP); Sweden (SVT); Switzerland (SRG-SSR); and UK (BBC).

Germany
ARD achieved its largest audience for Athletics on 18 August, with an average audience of 4.8 million and a peak of 6 million for its coverage of events including Konstanze Klosterhalfen’s memorable 5,000 metres victory in front of her home crowd. An average of 4.48 million fans tuned into ARD’s Athletics coverage, an audience share of 19.5%.

ARD also scored strong viewing figures for other sports, including 2.4 million Triathlon viewers and 2.1 million for Gymnastics. Overall, ARD’s average viewing share for its European Championships coverage was 16.5%.

ZDF’s top audience was 5.1 million, peaking at 6.7 million, for Athletics on the final day of action on 21 August, when the women’s 4x100 metres relay and the men’s javelin (Julian Weber) resulted in gold medals and the overall European Championships Nations Trophy for Germany for topping the medals table across the nine sports.

As with ARD, ZDF also achieved high ratings for other sports including Beach Volleyball (2.85 million) and Track Cycling (2.3 million).

Italy
RAI’s top live average audience was 1.6 million for its Athletics coverage on 16 August, when Italy’s Lamont Jacobs won the men’s 100 metres final.

Other strong ratings included 0.9 million viewers for Gymnastics on 14 August.

Netherlands
NPO’s highest viewing share (33.1%) was for the men’s Gymnastics finals on 21 August, including Dutch star Loran de Munck’s silver medal in the pommel horse final. This was followed by a 28% share for the women’s Cycling road race on the same day, won by the Netherlands’ Lorena Wiebes.

NPO’s highest peak audience was over 1 million for Athletics on 19 August, which included a gold medal for the Netherlands’ Femke Bol in the women’s 400 metres hurdles.

Norway
NRK achieved a remarkable viewing share of 63% on 19 August for the evening Athletics session in which Norway’s Karsten Warholm won a gold medal in the men’s 400 metres hurdles.

This was followed by a 54% share for its coverage of Athletics and Rowing during the morning session on 18 August.

Poland
TVP’s top average live audience was 1.5 million for Athletics on 18 August, when Poland won two medals, including Wojciech Nowicki’s gold medal in the men’s hammer. TVP also achieved an impressive 0.6 million viewers for its coverage of the women’s Cycling road race on 21 August.

Sweden
SVT’s top live average audience was 1.1 million (60.1% audience share) for Athletics on 20 August, including the men’s pole vault final won by Sweden’s Armand Duplantis.

UK
The BBC produced more than 120 hours of coverage across the main BBC One and BBC Two network channels during Munich 2022. As a result, European Championships broadcasts were regularly the most-watched in the UK over the 11 days of the competition, culminating in a peak audience of 3.7 million for Athletics on 21 August, when Great Britain won a gold medal in the men’s 4x100 metres relay and a silver in the men’s 800 metres (Jake Wightman).

The BBC’s coverage of Gymnastics, Rowing, Track Cycling and Triathlon all hit peaks of over 1 million viewers on network television, while live streaming of the action from Munich achieved more than half a million viewing requests each day.

‘The whole is bigger than the sum of the parts’

In the wake of the European Championships, Ron Chakraborty, Executive Editor, BBC Sport, said: “Munich has been a great host for the European Championships. There has been a wonderful contrast between the iconic venues hosting the traditional sports such as Athletics, Gymnastics and Rowing and the creative approach to the newer sports such as BMX, Sport Climbing and Beach Volleyball.

“Once again, the approach of the European Championships to ‘make the whole bigger than the sum of the parts’ has worked well, with many sports reaching audiences significantly higher than when their events are held in isolation.”

Axel Balkausky, ARD’s sports coordinator, said: “Munich 2022 was an outstanding success. The European Championships inspired everyone. That could be felt by the audience on site at the many different venues. We can also see it in the outstanding ratings and user numbers of our offers, but also in the very positive and emotional reactions of the athletes.”

Laurent Eric Le Lay, Sports Director, France Télévisions, said: “Congratulations and thanks to the organisers and the city of Munich for offering us this very beautiful edition of the European Championships 2022.

“Every day from 9 am to 11 pm, the teams of France Télévisions broadcasted all the 12 disciplines which were proposed. We went from one discipline to another throughout the 11 days of competitions offering an uninterrupted succession of captivating and emotional events. A beautiful organisation, a warm welcome, an enthusiastic public and a sumptuous decor in the magic place of the Olympic Park and within the city of Munich!”

The European Championships takes place every four years, in partnership with Europe’s free-to-air broadcasters. European Championships Management (ECM), the organisation that founded the multi-sport European Championships, manages and coordinates the event in cooperation with the participating Federations, host cities and broadcast partners, continuously developing the event concept.

This year’s edition aggregated the existing continental championships of nine sports: Athletics; Cycling (road, track, mountain bike and BMX freestyle); Gymnastics (artistic); Rowing; Triathlon; Beach Volleyball; Sport Climbing; Canoe Sprint; and Table Tennis.

EBU Members that broadcast the European Championships Munich 2022 included: ORF (Austria); RTBF & VRT (Belgium); BNT/BNR (Bulgaria); HRT (Croatia); CYBC (Cyprus); CT/CR (Czech Republic); DR (Denmark); ERR (Estonia); YLE (Finland); France Télévisions/SRF/RFI (France); ARD & ZDF (Germany); ERT (Greece); MTVA (Hungary); RUV (Iceland); RTE ( Ireland); RAI (Italy); LT/LR (Latvia); LRT (Lithuania); NOS (Netherlands); NRK (Norway); TVP/PR (Poland); RTP (Portugal); RTR (Russia); RTS (Serbia); RTVS (Slovakia); RTVSLO (Slovenia); RTVE (Spain); SVT/SR (Sweden); SRG-SSR (Switzerland); TRT (Turkey); BBC (UK).

Eurovision Services, an EBU company, provided services for the distribution of the international signal for the event, making it available across Europe, Asia and the Americas on six separate multilateral feeds. The company also provided dedicated services to seven EBU members.