Shut stadiums are a boost for live TV
● The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has collapsed a lot of economies and industries worldwide, but one of the few that is holding up is TV broadcasting.
Major leagues in Europe returned to action in June, and with matches being played behind closed doors, viewership of the English Premier League (EPL), Spanish La Liga and the Bundesliga in Germany soared.
According to Jean Willers, MD of analytics firm Nielsen Sports SA, viewership on SuperSport since the restart on June 11 increased by 487,497 viewers, “making up 11% of the total unique audience to date”.
Key audience drivers
“Unique audience on average per game [18 games in total] reports 151% higher compared to all games played before the lockdown,” Willers said.
The English Premier League, said Willers, reported a 58% boost of viewers on SuperSport compared with all games played before the lockdown.
“This represents 165,332 unique viewers more on average per game. Live broadcasts on SuperSport 3 were the key audience drivers,” said Willers.
Willers said over 4-million unique viewers watched football across any of the SuperSport channels from June 11 to June 22, which accounted for 29% of the total unique audience, with the first game of La Liga after lockdown accounting for 3% of the total unique football audience over this period.
Benedict Maaga, senior corporate communications manager at SuperSport, said the broadcaster was happy with these numbers.
“SuperSport is encouraged by the resumption of several international sports events. We are very excited about how our customers have embraced and are enjoying the resumption of live sport,” said Maaga.
“We strive to provide the best available content to our customers and, where SuperSport holds rights, these events will be broadcast whenever they resume, such as the Premier Soccer League [PSL].”
The PSL is set to announce the date for the resumption of the league tomorrow and SuperSport broadcasts the lion’s share of its matches as rights holders.
Viewership of football is also expected to increase with the resumption of the local game, especially live broadcasts on the freeto-air platform, Willers added, referring to SABC which has a R72m-a-year agreement with SuperSport to broadcast 46 matches, two per week, including all cup semifinals, finals and all derbies.
SABC1 still has the largest viewership numbers when it comes to live PSL games. The latest figures from Nielsen Sports SA indicate that the last Absa Premiership Soweto derby between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates drew about 8.4-million viewers on SABC1, while SuperSport 4 had just over 1.4million.