I just looked up some figures of past WHCs and they seem a little strange to me.
This
press release (PDF, German) from infront gives some information what the cumulated tv audience (647 mil.) of the 2009 WHC is composed of:
over 160 mil. from Russia
75 mil. from Czech Republic
60 mil. from Germany
44 mil. from Finland
that leaves about 318 from other countries
DSF (now named Sport1) showed up to 20 games in Germany. The match Germany against France slightly passed the 1 mil. mark, the other games had less (
Link, German). I remember having read, that under 400,000 was the average for their broadcasts.
So how do they reach 60 mil. cumulated viewers? Is every little highlight material in news shows and such stuff added in the calculation? If so, the total numbers look way less impressive.
Edit:
infronts text in English (PDF)
Edit2:
Arbitron defines that number this way:
Quote:
Cume Persons
The total number of different persons who tune to a radio station during the course of a daypart for at least five minutes.
|
Some assumptions:
- The ratio of live broadcasts and surrounding WHC programs is similar in all countries, as is the tv audiences behaviour of switching in and out of these broadcasts (not very likely, though).
- The average audience is very close to the number of those, who watched the whole match.
- The 400.000 average figure for 20 matches in Germany is correct.
Then one could calculate this:
400.000 x 20 = 8 mil.
the ratio to the cumulated total number is 8/60 = 0.1333 mil.
Using this for the worldwide number: 647/(8/60) = 4.8525 mil. - thats how many watched a match on average worldwide.
This multiplied with the total number of matches of 56 is 271.740.000 (not every match was televised everywhere - far from it.)
So the live broadcasts had a cumulated average tv audience of about 272 mil.
