Sunday's German F1 Grand Prix attained "outstanding" ratings, even without a victory from a German driver, according to the SID. Cologne-based TV channel RTL recorded an average of 5.9 million viewers during its live-broadcast of the race. That is an "excellent" market share of 40.9%. RTL's coverage of Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso's victory at the Hockenheimring peaked at 6.5 million viewers (SID, 7/23).
BRITISH OPEN A HIT: ESPN earned a 3.3 overnight Nielsen rating for the 9am-2:30pm ET
window of the final round of the British Open Sunday, marking the
net’s best figure since the event’s weekend rounds moved to cable TV in
’10. The telecast, which saw Ernie Els capture his first major victory
since ’02 with a one stroke win over Adam Scott, is up 27% from a 2.6
overnight for the same window last year, when Darren Clarke won by three
strokes over Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, and also a 27% gain
compared to Louis Oosthuizen’s win by seven strokes over Lee Westwood in
’10. The final round in ’09, when it aired on ABC, earned a 3.9
overnight for Stewart Cink’s playoff win over Tom Watson. Meanwhile,
ESPN earned a 3.0 overnight for coverage of the third round on Saturday,
up 58% from last year. The net’s second round coverage was up 50% and
first round up 22% (Austin Karp, THE DAILY).
HOOP IT UP: QUOTENMETER.de's Manuel Weis reported that the German Beko Basketball Bundesliga will "announce a new TV deal" at the beginning of the week. The new deal "will be virtually unchanged," according to Quotenmeter.de information. The Beko-BBL will continue its partnership with free-to-air TV channel Sport1. The league also negotiated with pay-TV channel Sky (QUOTENMETER.de, 7/22).
BET-AT-HOME CUP: Numerous elite tennis players such as Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero, Russian Nikolay Davydenko and Croat Ivo Karlovic will play at the bet-at-home-Cup in Kitzbühl, Austria. ORF Sport +, the digital channel of Austrian public broadcaster ORF, will have live coverage of the tournament from July 23-28 (ORF).
