UEFA Euro 2008 Telecasts Showing Strong Ratings In U.S., Europe

ESPN2 through 15 matches of UEFA's Euro 2008 soccer tournament is averaging a 0.54 coverage area rating (655,000 viewers), up 67% from a 0.3 coverage rating for programmingon ESPN2 in the comparable time period of 12:00-5:00pm ET in '07. Additionally, Euro 2008 matches on ESPN Deportes are averaging a 2.1 Hispanic coverage rating, representing 74,000 HHs.  The chart below lists the top five most-viewed games for Euro 2008 on ESPN2 (THE DAILY).

GOAL SCORING: BBC1's coverage of Tuesday's France-Italy match attracted 6.5 million viewers, the highest figure to date for the net's tournament coverage. BBC1 drew a 28% share from 7:45-10:00pm locally, with the two-hour average for game coverage and halftime from 7:45-9:45pm averaging 6.8 million viewers and a 30% share. The audience peaked at 7.4 million viewers and a 32% share between 9:00-9:15pm, when the game was nearing its conclusion (Manchester GUARDIAN, 6/17). The June 9 Netherlands-Italy game on ITV1 and the June 13 France-Netherlands game on BBC1 tied for the tournament's second-highest peak audience in England with 7.1 million viewers (Manchester GUARDIAN, 6/19). German broadcaster ARD for Monday's Germany-Austria match drew 28 million viewers, a 76.9% market share. The viewership was 1.6 million short of the record-setting figures for the '06 Italy-Germany FIFA World Cup semifinal match (DAILY VARIETY, 6/18).

ON THE AIR: German broadcasting group ProSiebenSat.1 and pay network Premiere have reached a three-year extension of their deals with UEFA, covering free and pay TV rights, respectively, for the Champions League. Sat.1 also will air the UEFA Cup. Terms of the deal were not disclosed (DAILY VARIETY, 6/20).

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