BT Sport’s attempts to make this year’s Champions League final "accessible to the widest possible audience saw its free YouTube live stream of the match viewed by around 1.8 million people," according to Tony Connelly of THE DRUM. The sports broadcaster saw its European viewing figures "significantly boosted following the decision to air the game across its digital platforms including bt.com, the BT Sport App and YouTube as well on its TV channels." With 4.3 million people watching the game on BT Sport’s TV channel, Real Madrid’s penalty shoot-out victory over rivals Atlético Madrid "attracted a combined audience of 6.1 million for the broadcaster." The figures "round off BT Sport’s first season in charge of the Champions League" after it agreed to a £897M ($1.3B) three-year contract with UEFA for "the exclusive rights to Europe’s elite football competitions which also included the Europa League." Together both finals "were watched by over 12 million across both digital and TV platforms." BT Sport Managing Dir Delia Bushell said that the YouTube partnership marked "a new era of live mass broadcast for major sporting events, combining TV and digital media" (THE DRUM, 5/30). In London, Mark Sweney reported the recent Europa League final, which saw Liverpool defeated by Sevilla, "drew a YouTube audience" of more than 1 million. The match "drew a total TV audience of 5 million, and a peak of 3.6 million." Just "under half of all TV viewing of the two finals was on BT’s free-to-air Showcase channel" (GUARDIAN, 5/31).
LA LIVE-STREAMING LIGA: THE DRUM's Seb Joseph wrote following a weekend "that saw it become the first European football league to live stream a match to Facebook Live, La Liga now wants to use the technology to rival the Premier League’s dominance of broadcaster’s wallets." While the Champions League final "in Milan might have enthralled the majority of football fans, a match between third-placed Atlético Madrid and first-placed Athletic of the Spanish Women’s First Division was the one offering them a glimpse into the sport’s future." It was the "first competitive football fixture to be streamed to Facebook by a European League in what its executives believe will be the first of many matches." La Liga Innovation & Global Development Managing Dir Nacho Trujillo said, "We have to assume that the Premier League has won the TV battle but we want to be on top when it comes to new ways to deliver content online ... now more than ever before we have the opportunity to express our brand worldwide. There’s no doubt that in three or four years our business model will be different because the way fans are consuming content is changing so quickly." Moving forward, Trujillo and his team are "busy extracting insights from the weekend’s live-stream and collaborating with its broadcasters to see how the technology can be mutually beneficial for them." Trujillo: "One of the most difficult things for our future regarding our business model is to understand the new complexity of how people want to watch content differently and create more ways to broadcast" (THE DRUM, 5/30).
MONACO BUMP: F1 BROADCASTING's David Nelson reported the Monaco Grand Prix "received a slight increase compared with other Formula One races so far this season but still recorded significant year-on-year decreases, unofficial overnight viewing figures show." Live coverage of the race "was broadcast on Sky Sports F1." The program on Sky Sports F1 averaged 623,000 viewers (8.5% market share), down 21.8% "on last year's audience" of 797,000 (8.7%). Channel 4's highlights program averaged 2.2 million viewers (14.9%), "its highest highlights numbers this season so far." Nevertheless, Channel 4's number is still down 37.4% on BBC One's average audience in '15 of 3.44 million (23.3%). As usual, Channel 4's program "smashed its own slot average." The combined audience of 2.78 million is the second highest of '16, "slightly behind Bahrain's audience of 2.84 million viewers." It is, however, down 34.4% on the 2015 Monaco Grand Prix combined audience of 4.23 million viewers (F1 BROADCASTING, 5/30).
