TdF viewing figures

alan_a

Christian Prudhomme was just on ES saying that Saturday's stage got 7.4million TV viewers (assuming in France only) making it the most watched stage for 6 years.

Anyone know how many watch the TdF in the UK ?

cogidubnus

the 15 ppl on this forum...

inkyfingers

I seem to remember that last year the TdF was ITV4s best rated program.

Bronzie

Imagine that...........7.4 million people desperately trying to stay awake until they crossed the finish line

graeme_s-2

inkyfingers wrote:

I seem to remember that last year the TdF was ITV4s best rated program.

Have you seen what else ITV4 show? A couple of hundred people would probably make it ITV4's best rated program!

RichN95.

Alan A wrote:

Anyone know how many watch the TdF in the UK ?

The highest for ITV4 highlights show for the first week was 627,000 (stage 6). That's a very good audience for a non-mainstream channel (ie not the big five)

The first seven stages were rated 1st-6th and 8th for that week on ITV4 (7th was the Dirty Dozen 400k)

As a comparison: Sky Sports best rating was 520k for the cricket. Only two actual Sky programmes (Hawaii 5-0 and Lie to Me) were watched more than Team Sky winning a stage.

inkyfingers

That's impressive for a minority sport. A shame that we can't get the rest of the country to show the same interest in the classics and the Giro etc.

alan_a

thanks

andyrac

inkyfingers wrote:

That's impressive for a minority sport. A shame that we can't get the rest of the country to show the same interest in the classics and the Giro etc.

Quite agree - and is something you'd hope Team Sky would be trying to do - highlight that there is more to road cycling than 3 weeks in July.

inkyfingers

AndyRAC wrote:

inkyfingers wrote:

That's impressive for a minority sport. A shame that we can't get the rest of the country to show the same interest in the classics and the Giro etc.

Quite agree - and is something you'd hope Team Sky would be trying to do - highlight that there is more to road cycling than 3 weeks in July.

You'd think that Sky would do a better job of promoting the small amount cycling that they show for a start. OK so it's only premier calendar type races, but they've all been randomly timed highlights a couple of weeks after the event and with next to no promotion.

Love them or hate them, Eurosport is the only broadcaster who has a decent crack at showing that there are races other than the Tour de France and The Tour of Britain.

The problem is one of branding, everybody knows the Tour de France, they know it's the biggest race in the world and they know that they are going to see a few plucky brits trying their hand and lots of stunning scenery. ITV4 or Sky somehow have to sex up the other races enough to get the same amount of interest. I'd hate it but the only way I can see it is by promoting say Paris Roubaix like a James Cracknell program...i.e. "The toughest race in the world", "look at how many people crash and land on their faces" and all that jazz.