No crowds, but millions of viewers

The restart of the Bundesliga behind locked doors on Saturday attracted more than 6-million viewers watching in Germany, a record for broadcaster Sky, according to specialist website DWDL.de.

When the league resumed on Saturday after a two-month break due to the coronavirus, Sky had 3.68-million viewers on its subscription TV channels in Germany. The domestic figure is more than double the usual audience for a typical round of Saturday matches.

In addition, 2.45-million viewers watched the “Konferenz ”— a simultaneous live broadcast of the five afternoon games, where coverage moved from stadium to stadium.

In the day’s main game, Erling Braut Haaland scored the first German league goal since mid-March to help Borussia Dortmund rout Schalke 4-0.

A spokesperson for the German League said the matches were televised by more than 70 broadcasters worldwide.

With Bundesliga matches played behind locked doors in near-empty stadiums, Sky Germany broadcast the “Konferenz” on its free-to-view Sports News Channel. The idea was to discourage fans in Germany from meeting up to watch matches in places with a Sky subscription.

When Saturday afternoon’s games kicked off, Sky Germany had a market share of 27.4% on its pay-to-view channels and 18.2% on its free channel. In the target group of 14- to 49-yearolds, the total market share was “more than 60%”, according to DWDL.de on Sunday, a record for Sky Germany. /