The Spain-Italy Euro 2012 Final underscored that "live sports remain the TV ratings king," but European broadcasters "are now questioning whether it's worth stumping up the huge sums required to hold that throne," according to John Hopewell of DAILY VARIETY. The June 27 Spain-Portugal semifinal "became the most-watched TV broadcast in Spanish history" with 18.1 million viewers, drawing an 83.3% share. In Germany, ZDF's broadcast of the Final "achieved record ratings for a non-German match," with 20.31 million viewers and a 56.2% share. The Euro 2012 Final in Italy "pulled an 83.7% share on pubcaster RAI, drawing 23 million viewers during the first half." That share "dropped in the second half to a still whopping 21 million for 79.6%." The Italian ratings are "particularly impressive" since RAI "encrypted the matches on satellite so that subscribers to Rupert Murdoch's Sky Italia paybox who do not have a so-called digital key were unable to watch them on their set-top boxes." However, while TV ratings increased, analysts “doubt any major broadcaster turned a profit save for ITV.” An analyst said that in Spain, where Mediaset Espana paid less than US$88M to broadcast the tournament, the net “could still lose” $10-20M. Shared rights arrangements “are now common.” French newspaper Les Echos noted France's TF1 and M6 “paid around” $25.2M each for Euro 2012 games, down on the $63M they each paid in ‘08, “whey they reportedly lost about” $38M and $25.2M respectively (VARIETY.com, 7/2).
CRYING FOUL: The AP's Ciaran Fahey noted UEFA has "come under fire in Germany for allowing prerecorded scenes to be cut into live coverage of games" from Euro 2012. German broadcaster ARD said that images of a German fan crying after Italy F Mario Balotelli's second goal during the June 28 Italy-Germany semifinal "were in fact taken before the semifinal, when she was overcome with emotion during the anthems." The issue "came to light when the woman received e-mails from friends at home wondering why she was so upset with almost an hour still to play." ARD Euro 2012 Chief Editor Joerg Schoenenborn said, "We are surprised and irritated. These pictures aren't acceptable for us, especially since we spoke to UEFA about this problem a few days ago. We're now looking for further talks." German newspaper Sueddeutschen Zeitung noted that UEFA "maintains a policy of censorship in its TV coverage, avoiding any images of political banners, empty seats, pyrotechnics or streakers on the pitch." The organization in a statement said, "UEFA is committed to deliver an unbiased and complete coverage" (AP, 6/30).
A WEEKEND TO FORGET: The GUARDIAN's John Plunkett wrote U.K. broadcaster ITV1 was "hit by a double whammy" of tennis player Andy Murray's third-round Wimbledon win over Marcos Baghdatis and the Euro 2012 Final. The two events "consigned ITV1 to its worst weekend's ratings for at least a decade -- and most likely the worst viewing figures since the commercial network launched in 1955." The Murray-Baghdatis match "peaked with more than 8 million viewers on BBC1, and Spain's Euro 2012 victory [was] watched by six times as many people on BBC1 as it was on ITV." It was ITV1's "worst weekend performance since the current system of measurement began" (GUARDIAN, 7/3).
