The Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) has announced global broadcast viewing figures for The Collins Cup, its inaugural flagship event that took place on August 28 in Šamorín, near Bratislava, Slovakia.
The PTO has worked alongside YouGov Sport to gather audience data and fan insight of the inaugural Collins Cup.
The new race format for triathlon, modelled after the Ryder Cup, saw teams of Internationals, European, and USA athletes pitted against one another. According to PTO… ‘The new format resulted in phenomenal viewing figures moving it closer to long established properties like tennis and golf.’
- In deals brokered internally by PTO Media and by IMG, a cumulative event audience of close to 7 million across live and highlights reportedly tuned in to watch The Collins Cup.
- There was close to 1000 hours of broadcast coverage aired live and on demand in over 165 countries, 22 languages, covering 400 million households.
- Digital, social media video views and primetime news coverage added further worldwide reach and engagement around the event in the build-up, during and post event.
- PTO reported 5x audience growth on the PTO 2020 Championship, held at Challenge Daytona in December 2020.
The Collins Cup app was downloaded 35,000 times and The Collins Cup website and live second screen data tool data had over 200K users on event day as fans looked to consume live and on demand content across PTO’s own channels.
Some of the biggest broadcasters around the world partnered with the PTO on The Collins Cup, including Eurosport and Discovery+, Fox Sports Australia, Sky Sport New Zealand, FujiTV, BeinSports, CBS, CBC in Canada, BT Sport, SuperSport, Tencent in China and Starhub Singapore.
Further highlights deals have been agreed with Sports Italia, ECLAT in Asia and SABC in South Africa.
In addition to the live and highlights broadcast the PTO produced build-up programming including two Collins Cup countdown shows presented by Charlie Webster and the PTO’s two-part documentary, Beyond Human, produced by Noah Media Group, which has been recently nominated for a Broadcast Sport Award.
These programmes were distributed across the PTO YouTube channel, PTO athletes channels and to PTO’s broadcast partners, including a premier on Eurosport 1.
‘In total PTO’s shoulder programming claimed a further 3 million in audience showing the value of non-live programming.’
PTO adds that the stand out deal was securing full live and localised coverage on Eurosport 2 and highlights on Eurosport 1. Both the live event and the highlights achieved… ‘fantastic ratings across the Eurosport Discovery+ network, which delivered new audiences and a varied demographic.’
Hillary Mandel, EVP, Head of North Americas & Global Partnerships, IMG, said “The Collins Cup demonstrated there was an appetite for a new format in the sport of triathlon. There’s no doubt the competition between the three teams featuring the best triathletes in the world helped drive engagement on linear and digital platforms.”
Charlie Dundas, Commercial Director at YouGov Sport, said “We were delighted to see the reach of the inaugural Collins Cup. This new format has proved to be a huge hit in the triathlon world but has also demonstrated that the sport is appealing to the general sports enthusiast too.”
Tim Godfrey, Chief Marketing Officer at Professional Triathletes Organisation, added “We are thrilled that so many people around the world consumed the inaugural Collins Cup. Our athletes have some of the most compelling stories in sport. So we are delighted to give them the platform to showcase their talents.”
