ARD Scores Top Ratings For World Ski Championships; Super Bowl With 40% Share

German public broadcaster ARD "has received top ratings" for its coverage of the Int'l Ski Federation (FIS) Alpine World Ski Championships from Schladming, Austria, according to Fabian Riedner of QUOTEN METER. ARD's broadcast of the women's Super G race on Tuesday, which started at 10:50am German time, attracted 1.21 million viewers and translated into a strong market share of 15.3%. In the target demographic 14-49, the race was watched by 190,000 viewers or a 6.4% share. Foggy conditions, however, postponed the race several times. At 2:25pm, ARD continued its broadcast from Schladming. The channel's audience increased to 2.21 million viewers and its market share reached 17.9%. In the target demographic, the market share increased to 8.7%. In addition, pan-European sports channel Eurosport also received high ratings for its broadcast of the race. A total of 200,000 viewers tuned in to watch Slovenian Tina Maze win Super G gold. The number equaled a strong 1.6% market share (QUOTEN METER, 2/6).

HANDBALL FLOPS: QUOTEN METER's Riedner also reported German sports channel Sport1 "had trouble reaching the marketing-important target demographic with its handball broadcasts." Sport1 was able to attract an average of 250,000 viewers to its broadcast of the handball DHB-Pokal (national cup) quarterfinal game between SG Flensburg-Handewitt and the Rhein-Neckar Löwen on Tuesday. The number equaled a slightly above average market share of 0.8%. However, in the target demographic only 40,000 viewers or a 0.3% market share tuned to watch the game. Therefore, Sport1 "wants to show, among other things, fourth-tier football games on Tuesday evenings over the next several weeks" (QUOTEN METER, 2/6).

SUPER BOWL HIGHS: QUOTEN METER's Manuel Weis reported "the ratings for Super Bowl XLVII on German private channel Sat.1 after 3am German time were even higher than the ones before." At 3am, an average of 730,000 viewers watched the NFL's season finale. The number translated into a market share of 28%. In the target demographic, the market share reached 38.9%. The game between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers had its peak audience between 3:54am-4:46am, the game's fourth quarter. During this time period, Sat.1 attracted 690,000 viewers, and the market share reached 40.4%. In the target demographic, the game's decisive quarter was watched by 560,000 viewers (QUOTEN METER, 2/5).