Almost a half billion people watched luge on television
Berchtesgaden (pps) The broadcasts this past winter brought excellent figures. World-wide 449 hours were broadcast, almost a half billion people watched the races in the 2011/2012 Viessmann World Cup and the International Luge Federation’s (FIL) 43rd World Championships. This is shown in the report from the FIL’s TV representative, Britta Semmler-Dzösch from Germany, for the Congress in Riga, Latvia.
In Germany, ARD and ZDF reported more than 31 hours live or time-delayed. The best ratings were achieved at the broadcast of the Team Relays in Winterberg (3.69 million viewers / 19.1 % market share) and Oberhof (3.34 / 17.5%). The men’s World Championship race in Altenberg achieved the largest market share with 25.7 procent (2.62 million viewers).
On Eurosport and Eurosport 2, luge was on-air 48 hours across Europe. RAI Sport plus in Italy broadcast 126 and LTV6 in Latvia 55 hours. In Austria, the total broadcasting time more than doubled from 1.5 hours to 4 hours. TSN in Canada reported three hours of the Viessmann World Cups in Whistler und Calgary. Universal Sports broadcasted a total of 44 hours of luge.
In print media, the reports in Germany before, during, and after the FIL World Championships in Altenberg totaled more than 20 million copies.
