TV is the most-important medium for 82.4% of German sports fans, although 26.1% already simultaneously use the Internet to get their sports news and to communicate with like-minded people. Those are the findings of a study regarding the media usage of German sports fans by PR firm Edelman and the Institute for Communications and Media Research of the German Sport University Cologne. The study was conducted in September by market research company GfK Enigma in which it questioned 902 German speaking people via telephone between the ages of 14-69. The majority of Germans are interested in sports coverage (64%). During big sporting events, this number increases to 79%. After TV, the Internet is the second-most important medium (44%) ahead of daily newspapers (24.2%). Only 3.5% of 14-19-year-olds get their sports information from newspapers, but a more substantial 45.3% of 60-69-year-olds do. Radio (12.9%), magazines (10.5%) and teletext (3.5%) play only a supporting role in regards to sports coverage. Online media is the fastest rising medium in sports. Seven out of 10 (71.9%) people age 14-19 use the Internet as their medium of choice. Nearly half the population (46.7%) of the 40-49 age group uses the Internet to access sports information, and even 22.1% of the 60-69-year-olds use the Internet. In addition to desktop PCs (52.6%), mobile devices are becoming more and more important. A total of 53.9% of German sports fans who access the Internet do so on their laptops. A smaller percentage do so on smartphones (23.2%) and tablets (8.7%) (German Sport University Cologne).
