World Cup Gave ZDF Best Year In Decades

Thanks to the powerful ratings of the FIFA World Cup last summer, German public broadcaster ZDF scored its best annual market share in 22 years in 2018.

The channel’s overall share of 13.9%, highest since 1996, owed a lot to the huge numbers generated by the defending world champion German team’s World Cup matches and the final in July.

ZDF shared World Cup rights with fellow public broadcaster ARD and together they dominated the top of the ratings with their coverage.

Number one of the year was Germany’s win versus Sweden in the group stage on ARD with 27.48 million viewers, with Germany’s loss to Mexico on ZDF in second place with 25.97 million.

ZDF also showed the final defeat by South Korea, which left Germany at the bottom of their group. That match pulled 25.43 million viewers, third biggest audience of the year.

In fourth place was the French triumph versus Croatia on ZDF with 21.32 million, followed in fifth place by Croatia’s semi-final win against England on ARD with 19.23 million.

Women’s Handball Ratings Prove Gender-Neutral Appeal

The French team’s victory in the final of the European Women’s Handball Championship last month generated a big audience on TF1 In France, with more male viewers than female.

France’s victory over Russia pulled 5.4 million viewers (3 million male) with a 29.4% market share. The overall audience for the European final was 25% bigger than for the final of the 2017 Women’s Handball World Cup, also won by the French.

Not only do men watch women’s handball, women show equal interest in men’s and women’s, according to figures from Eurodata TV Worldwide.

The proportion of female viewers was 43.9% for the European final. That figure closely matches the 43.2% female balance for the final of the 2017 Men’s World Championship, also won by France.

The semi-final between France and Holland pulled 1 million viewers (6% share) in France and 155,000 Dutch viewers (2% share).

The other semi-final between Russia and Romania actually drew a bigger audience in the smaller country. In Romania, there were 843,000 viewers (11% share), while 474,000 Russians tuned in (2% share).

As usual, the 2018 women’s tournament was a big attraction in Scandinavia. Cumulative viewing reached 9.3 million hours on TV 1 and Viasat 4 in Norway for a market share of 21.4%.

In Denmark, viewers saw 4.3 million hours on TV 2 and TV2 Sport (16.7% share) and in Sweden, the total hit 5.3 million on TV3 and TV 10 (4.9% share).

Football (And More Football) Dominated 2018 Spanish Viewing

Spain lost to Russia on penalties in the FIFA World Cup last summer but the dramatic shoot-out scored the biggest audience of 2018 in the country for tournament broadcaster Telecinco.

The shoot-out drew 14.829 million viewers and an audience share of 81.1% after 13.835 million remained glued to extra time. The 90-minute match pulled 12.790 million with a share of 72.4%.

Football accounted for all of the top 50 audiences in Spain last year except for the Eurovision Song Contest (Spain came 23rd).

Spain’s World Cup matches against Morocco (11.560 mil.), Iran (11.481 mil.) and Portugal (10.402 mil.) on Telecinco ranked next in the list of the biggest audiences of the year.

Antena 3 also scored with football as Real Madrid’s victory over Liverpool in the Champions League final pulled the biggest audience apart from the national team during Russia 2018.

Real’s win drew 9.291 million viewers with a 55.3% share, followed in the hit parade by the eventual champions’ earlier games versus Bayern Munich (8.749 mil.) and PSG (8.564 mil.).

Rounding out the annual top 10 was the extra time of England versus Croatia in the World Cup on Telecinco with 8.492 million viewers watching the Croatians prevail.

That actually outscored the French victory over Croatia in the World Cup final with 8.247 million.

England’s penalty shoot-out win over Colombia also beat the final.

Intel Joins Alibaba In A.I. Project For Tokyo 2020

Intel and Alibaba have announced that they are developing athlete tracking technology powered by artificial intelligence that is aimed to be deployed at the Olympic Games 2020 and beyond.

The technology uses existing and upcoming Intel hardware and Alibaba cloud computing technology to power a deep learning application that extracts 3D forms of athletes in training or competition.

Computer vision with A.I. deep learning algorithms will generate a 3D Mesh that enables coaches and trainers to extract intricate real-time biomechanical data from which they can analyse performance and introduce new training enhancements.

The technology leverages advanced pose modelling techniques and other A.I. algorithms designed to analyse the biomechanics of an athlete’s movements as captured with regular video cameras.

Navin Shenoy, Intel Executive VP and GM, Data Center Group, said: “This technology has incredible potential as an athlete training tool and is expected to be a game-changer for the way fans experience the Games, creating an entirely new way for broadcasters to analyse, dissect and re-examine highlights during instant replays.”

“We are proud to partner with Intel on the first-ever A.I.-powered 3D athlete tracking technology where Alibaba contributes its best-in-class cloud computing capability and algorithmic design,” said Chris Tung, CMO, Alibaba Group. “With our technological advancements, Alibaba is transforming the sports media and broadcasting industries. We continue to collaborate with industry leaders and drive innovations to create new experiences for the world to enjoy.”

USOC Chief Responds To Criticism By Athlete Group

The CEO of the United States Olympic Committee has reacted to strong criticism from athlete representatives of the 50 Olympic sports in a letter to members of the USOC’s Athlete Advisory Council (AAC).

Sarah Hirshland, who was named as the USOC’s chief exec last July, sent the letter to the 138 members of the council on Sunday.

The Southern California News Group obtained a copy and the Orange County Register’s Scott M. Reid ran excerpts in a story on the controversy swirling around the USOC in the wake of abuse scandals, with mounting pressure mounting on Congress to overhaul the organisation.

In the letter, Hirshland outlined future steps to increase athlete involvement in decision-making and the work of a reform commission led by former WNBA President Lisa Borders.

Hirshland wrote: “But the USOC needs an equal commitment from you, the elected members of the AAC. We need your engagement and involvement. We need your candor and transparent views. We need your leadership, organized and aligned behind a unified voice so that we know athletes’ input is well represented.”

“We expect you to hold us accountable. We also expect you to hold your peers accountable – accountable to telling the truth, living up to the commitments we make to one another and to regularly engaging in a respectful and open-minded way to solve concerns and discuss opportunities. Together, we all must represent the very culture we want to live every day.”

Hirshland’s letter was in response to a statement released last Friday by nearly 50 Olympians calling themselves the Committee to Restore Integrity to the USOC or Team Integrity.

They demanded mass resignation of most of the USOC’s senior administration and board of directors, in addition to urging Congress to rewrite the 1978 Amateur Sports Act and create a more athlete-centric governing body for U.S. Olympic sports.

World Cup Ruled French TV Year For TF1

The FIFA World Cup last summer dominated the ratings hit parade in the winning nation in 2018, delivering nine of the 10 biggest audiences and 14 of the top 30 – all on TF1.

The French team’s triumph in the final was the year’s number one watched by 19.4 million viewers with a market share of 81.9%.

The semi-final victory over Belgium was not far behind with 19.1 million and 69.3% share.

The quarter-final win over Uruguay pulled 12.9 million and a share of 75.6% and the preceding victory over Argentina attracted 12.6 million and a share of 71.6%.

The top match not featuring France was Croatia’s victory over England in the semis with 12.3 million and a share of 52.8%, ranking seventh of the year.

Overall, TF1 had 91 of the 100 biggest audiences of 2018.

NFL Post-Season Powers Into TV Hit Parade

How powerful a draw is National Football League (NFL) post-season action? When the late afternoon play-off game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Chicago Bears went over the 7 pm threshold into U.S. primetime on Sunday it pulled 30 million more viewers than the nearest competitor.

The overspill of the Eagles’ victory on NBC had 37.68 million viewers, while news magazine 60 Minutes, which has anchored Sunday evenings for CBS for 50 years, had 7.07 million.

The picture was similar on Saturday when the wild-card game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Dallas Cowboys aired in primetime on Fox. The Dallas win had 24.57 million viewers from 8-11 pm. The top competitor was 48 Hours, another CBS news magazine, starting at 10 pm and pulling 3.50 million.

Before the play-offs kicked off,  it was already a good season for NFL’s broadcast partners with the five TV packages showing a 5% audience bump for the regular season and an average of 15.8 million viewers per game (excluding the London games).

The November 4 contest between the Green Bay Packers and New England Patriots on NBC averaged 23.7 million viewers, the largest prime-time audience on any network since the Academy Awards on ABC last March.

NFL Secures TurboTax Sponsorship

Tax preparation software brand TurboTax will sponsor the National Football League’s two conference championship games scheduled on January 20 and will also run a Super Bowl advertising spot for the sixth straight year in the February 3 game at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

It is the first time the NFL has enlisted a sponsor for both the AFC contest (on CBS this year) and the NFC final (on Fox). TurboTax Live will be the presenting sponsor.

Intuit, the parent company of TurboTax, is now the NFL’s official sponsor for financial and accounting software, as well as tax-preparation services under a deal estimated to total over $15m (£11.7m) including TV ad buys.

Last year, TurboTax ran two ads in the Super Bowl on NBC.

With this season’s Super Bowl LIII on CBS a month away, there is reportedly limited inventory still available for ads, mostly in the second half.

The network has been getting upwards of $5m (£3.9m) for each 30-second Super Bowl spot.

Dentons Handling Busy Sports Slate

The sports team of leading global law firm Dentons, which hosted the iSportconnect Christmas Directors’ Club in London on December 6, are as usual in a full-throttle phase of activity with multiple big briefs on the go.

Dentons continues to act for owner Mike Ashley in his long-running efforts to sell English Premier League (EPL) football team, Newcastle United.

The firm also advises Premiership Rugby club Saracens on commercial matters, which have included advising on sponsorship agreements, handling various disputes and advising on stadium usage contracts.

The firm is also acting for the Takeover Panel in its claim versus David King following his takeover of Scottish Premiership football club, Rangers.

On the broadcasting side the firm is acting for Eleven Sports on its challenge to the UEFA “black-out” rule.

Internationally, Dentons continues to advise the Qatar Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy on all aspects of hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup, including advice on FIFA regulations.  In the USA, Dentons is advising on a significant new stadium development.

“With our extensive global coverage, we are continuing to see a number of cross-border deals across all sports,” said Richard Barham, Team Leader for the UK, Europe and Middle East. “This is a testament to sport’s increasing ability to cross borders and generate global interest.”

HealthAccord 2019 Confirmed For Gold Coast

SportAccord 2019 will hold the second HealthAccord conference during the World Sport & Business Summit in Gold Coast, Australia, next May.

HealthAccord: The Power of Sport – The Power to Change will take place on May 7, 2019 from 09:00-12:30.

Co-Chairs leading the HealthAccord conference programme are Professor Fabio Pigozzi, President, FIMS (International Federation of Sports Medicine) & Member of the IOC Medical and Scientific Commission – Medical and Scientific Group; and Professor Margo Mountjoy, Chair, ASOIF Medical + Scientific Consultative Group, IOC Medical + Scientific Commission-Games Group FINA Bureau.

Prof. Mountjoy said: “HealthAccord 2019 is a great opportunity for SportAccord participants to learn from healthcare professionals and technology experts on topics that are relevant for all sports: athlete mental health, nutritional supplements, technological monitoring of athlete injuries and wearable sensors in sport.”

“Learning how to enhance your athletes’ health will ultimately result in improvements in sport performance. We are excited to bring the latest evidence in science and technology to Gold Coast to help you improve your game!”

This conference will cover a number of topics including a panel session on mental health in relation to athletes and society. The panel will examine innovations, diagnosis and treatment, the links between mental health and activity levels, and the effects on performance and quality of life. Panellists will also share practical tools and takeaways to help international federations tackle issues and break down barriers to treatment.

Panel speaker Kathy Martin, Senior Director, Athlete Assistance, Women’s Tennis Association said: “The HealthAccord conference promises to deliver innovative and practical information for SportAccord attendees. Learn from experts in the field, get tips and takeaways gleaned from work with elite athletes on and off the field of play. Apply these ideas to your own sport to enhance your athletes’ health and performance.”

Organisations involved in the business of sport who wish to attend HealthAccord should register for the Gold Coast edition which entitles them to join the entire conference programme and take advantage of all the opportunities on offer.