Discovery's takeover of Eurosport showing early signs of promise following Australian Open
Discovery’s re-brand of Eurosport is showing signs of progress after the sports channel revealed its best ever ratings weekend in the UK thanks to its coverage of the Australian Open Men’s Final with Andy Murray.
Australian Open
Eurosport’s exclusive coverage of the grand slam, which saw Djokovic secure his sixth Australian Open title at the expense of Andy Murray, was an audience milestone for the channel, breaking a 22 year record which was set during World Cup 94’.
Eurosport 1 recorded a peak of 1.1 million viewers for the fixture and was the most watched channel in the UK during the match. European wide, it was the most watched tennis match in the channel's history with a total of 4.85 million viewers.
The figures will come as a boost to the channel which has been reinvigorated since Discovery Communications took over in November 2015 and promised to make the sports platform the go-to destination for sport fans.
Susanna Dinnage, General Manager, Discovery Networks, UK & Ireland said, “The record breaking audience for the Australian Open is a fantastic reflection of a revitalised Eurosport. To break a record that has stood for more than 20 years so soon after Eurosport joined the Discovery family is a signal of our intent to secure the greatest moments in sport exclusively and tell the greatest local stories with more local production.”
David Kerr, Managing Director of Eurosport in the UK said, “It’s been fantastic to offer passionate sport fans exclusive live coverage of the remarkable story of Johanna Konta and the success of both Andy and Jamie Murray.
“Now a wider audience than ever can appreciate the quality of our presentation and commentary. Talent like Greg Rusedski, Virginia Wade, Mats Wilander, Pat Cash and Annabel Croft have helped make our tennis coverage stand out in recent years and our commentary team led by Simon Reed has been outstanding again this last fortnight.
“We are now looking forward to the rest of our tennis this year, starting with Great Britain’s Davis Cup defence against Japan in Birmingham in March.”
Later this year Eurosport will broadcast the French Open, the British grass court tournaments, including The Aegon Championships at The Queen’s Club, the US Open and Great Britain’s Davis Cup defence as well as British ties in the Fed and Hopman Cups and other ATP and WTA tournaments.