Berchtesgaden (pps) Both the German TV station ZDF as well as Austria’s ORF boasted strong TV ratings regarding the season’s opener of the Viessmann Luge World Cup in Innsbruck-Igls. About 1.5 million viewers saw Andi Langenhan’s first World Cup victory on ZDF, which corresponds to a market share of 14.5 per-cent. Thus, luge headed the list of sports broadcasts on Sunday. The TV transmissions of the women’s and men’s cross-country skiing in Kuusamo, Finland, reached a market share of 12.7 per-cent.
The live coverage of the decision in the double-seater with the second and third place of Andreas Linger-Wolfgang Linger as well as Tobias Schiegl-Markus Schiegl on Austria’s ORF, reached a market share of 18 per-cent - a bigger share than the first part of the coverage of the men’s downhill competition (16 per-cent) in Lake Louise, Canada. It was the first time that ORF offered an extensive coverage of the luge event in Tyrol.