Football Match Tops Olympics on German TV

Football pulled the biggest television audience in Germany on Sunday, stuff beating the highest viewing of the Rio Olympics. Bayern Munich’s 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund in the German Super Cup, kicking off at 8:30 pm on ZDF, drew 7.22 million viewers and a share of 23.7%. The top Olympics audience was 4.83 million on ARD for gymnastics starting at 7 pm. Women’s beach volleyball, despite a late start at 10:30 pm on the same channel, was close behind with 4.66 million watching the German team beat Canada 2-0.

On Saturday, tennis topped Olympics viewing in Germany with 5.79 million for Juan Martin el Porto’s semifinal win over Rafa Nadal. On Friday, women’s football came first with 6.44 million watching the Germans beat China 1-0 on ARD.

In Spain, the gold medal success of the Spanish men’s doubles tennis team of Nadal and Marc Lopez drew the biggest Olympics audience on Friday with 1.378 million viewers on La 1 (a hair behind the Hollywood film Into the Blue on Antena 3).

In Italy, diving coverage from Rio attracted the biggest audiences of the weekend. The audience for diving was 4.843 million, giving RAI 2 a 30.7% share.