Following its recently announced three-year agreement with French TV broadcaster Canal+, it is clear that Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) is enjoying increased global exposure for its cycling events.
2011-2012 Patrick UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup
Cyclocross has certainly captured the imagination of fans all around the world, if official television statistics are anything to go by!
According to IFM statistics, the eight rounds of the 2011-2012 Patrick UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup were watched by a cumulated television audience of 52.65 million, of which 5.54 million were among viewers of the 20 live broadcasts.
The World Cup was covered in seven countries. With a total broadcasting time exceeding 246 hours, Japan contributed to 51% of the total broadcasting time (126 hours) followed by the Czech Republic (20:13:37) and France (18:54:57).
Underlining the importance of cyclocross in the Benelux countries, the highest cumulated audience was in Belgium with 25.45 million. This was followed by the Netherlands (12.88 million) and the Czech Republic (11.76 million).
The Plzen (CZE) round of the 2011-2012 Patrick UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup proved marginally the most popular with television spectators, drawing an audience of 8.45 million. Next came Koksijde (BEL) with 8.43 million then Hoogerheide (NED) with 7.99 million. Meanwhile, the most broadcasting hours were devoted to the Koksijde round (46:16:59) followed by Heusden-Zolder (BEL) with 33:12:59 hours and Tabor (CZE) with 30:38:55.
The ever-increasing popularity of the discipline is reflected in the fact that in the last five cyclocross seasons, the number of broadcasting hours has increased by nearly 200 hours: from 47:33:51 hours for the 2007-2008 World Cup to 246:35:54 hours for the last (2011-2012) season. In the same period, the cumulated audience has increased by 61%, from 32.51 million to 52.65 million.
2011-2012 UCI Track Cycling World Cup presented by Samsung
The anticipation of the 2012 London Olympics may well have been a significant factor in the ‘extremely pleasing’ TV viewing figures throughout the 2011-2012 edition of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup presented by Samsung.
TV audiences for the World Cup reached an all-time high since the 2005-2006 edition. With a cumulated audience of 112.76 million, the number of TV viewers is up a massive 310% on the TV audience of 36.26 million six seasons ago. The broadcasting time is also up (from 87:29:42 hours to 138:23:47 hours). The only season that went higher than this was in 2008-2009 when the globally distributed Gillette World Sports programme boosted international coverage.
With broadcasting time exceeding 63 hours, and almost 60 million viewers, the UK contributed to the bulk of the coverage (46%) and the cumulated audience (53%). China came in second in the audience stakes with 30.53 million, followed by the Netherlands with 7.87 million. After the UK, Pan Asia devoted the most broadcasting time to the four World Cup rounds with 28.40.10 hours, followed by the United States with 12:30:16 hours.
From the London round of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup alone the 4h 20mins of live broadcasts were followed by more than 3 million BBC2 viewers!
The highest broadcasting time was registered for the first leg of the World Cup in Astana, which owed the greater part of the 54 hours of airtime to extensive delayed coverage on British Eurosport.
Several countries registered a large increase in the number of television hours devoted to the World Cup. Of particular note are the United States and France, which devoted no broadcasting time to the 2010-2011 season, but 12:30:16 hours and 8:20:12 hours respectively in 2011-2012. The UK increased its broadcasting time by more than 60 hours, compared with the three hours of coverage over the previous season!
