Millions of winter sports fans look forward to TV festivities

Millions of winter sports fans look forward to TV festivities

The first winter sports athletes have already started the season, but for fans, the TV holidays only begin next weekend.

Millions of people watch the hours-long live broadcasts and consistently ensure top ratings that only very few other sports achieve.

How much winter sport is on TV?

Public television once again has around 400 hours of live coverage in its program. ARD and ZDF alternate on the weekends, with the first one starting this year. "Winter sports is ARD's biggest sports program," said sports coordinator Axel Balkausky. The special-interest channel Eurosport has even more winter sports in its program than Erste and Zweite.

When is the winter sports program on TV?

Saturdays and Sundays are the main broadcasting days for the major channels. "There are also up to four streams on the internet on Fridays," explains Balkausky. They are available on "sportschau.de", "zdf.de/sport" and in the media libraries. During the week, there are usually only biathlon broadcasts on traditional television, such as next week on ZDF.

The first program starts this Saturday at 10 a.m. with the cross-country skiing World Cup in Kuusamo. This will be followed by a typically colorful mix of slopestyle, Nordic combined, biathlon and ski jumping. The winter fun lasts around eight hours before the "Sportschau" shows soccer.

What does Eurosport show?

If you don't like what the public broadcasters offer or find it too small, you can switch to Eurosport or the paid streaming service discovery+, which is also part of the Warner Bros. Discovery media group. The program comprises 1100 hours on the various platforms. According to the company, almost 600 winter sports events are shown. As with ARD and ZDF, there are also live broadcasts on "eurosport.de".

How are the viewing figures?

ARD and ZDF's ratings counters are rubbing their hands in glee this winter. The broadcasts are ratings guarantors for many hours. In the previous season, the long weekend broadcasts attracted an average of around 2.2 million viewers to the television, often twice as many for the particularly popular sports. According to the broadcasters, the average market share of around 400 hours was 18.3 percent, which is well above the usual figures.

Which disciplines are particularly popular?

The clear number one among TV viewers is biathlon. Consequently, a biathlon broadcast was the most successful TV show of the winter sports season from mid-November 2022 to the first weekend in April 2023. 5.147 million people watched the 4x7.5-kilometre men's relay from Antholz on 22 January on ZDF, giving it a market share of 31.7 percent, according to the broadcaster.

Nine biathlon races are in the top ten most-watched live broadcasts. Only ski jumping can keep up: The New Year's ski jumping event of the Four Hills Tournament came fourth with 4.658 million viewers on ARD. Here, ratings have recently fallen against the winter sports trend.

Which presenters and experts are on duty?

ARD, ZDF and Eurosport are once again relying on prominent expertise on ice and snow this season. Das Erste has Arnd Peiffer (biathlon) and Erik Lesser (biathlon), Sven Hannawald (ski jumping) and Felix Neureuther (alpine skiing) at the start. Julia Scharf, Stephanie Müller-Spirra and Claus Lufen will alternate in the studio as presenters. Lea Wagner is in ski jumping, Michael Antwerpes in biathlon, Julia Scharf and Markus Othmer are in the alpine skiing races.

Marco Büchel (alpine skiing), Sven Fischer (biathlon) and Laura Dahlmeier (biathlon) continue to be part of the ZDF team of experts. New addition is Severin Freund for ski jumping. New presenters are Amelie Stiefvatter (alpine skiing) and Lena Kesting (ski jumping). Otherwise, ZDF is building on the strengths of previous years, such as studio presenters Rudi Cerne and Katrin Müller-Hohenstein.

Eurosport has most of the experts at the microphone. The broadcaster's line-up includes Martin Schmitt and Werner Schuster (both ski jumping), Michael Rösch (biathlon), Vicky Rebensburg (alpine skiing), Fritz Dopfer (alpine skiing), former junior world champion Martina Lechner (alpine skiing), Jochen Behle (cross-country skiing) and Hans-Peter Pohl (Nordic combined).

1. The live coverage of winter sports on television includes events like biathlon, alpine skiing, and ski jumping, among others.
2. You can watch live telecasts of winter sports on platforms like Eurosport, in addition to public broadcasters ARD and ZDF.
3. The weekend channels, such as ARD and ZDF, are the main broadcasting platforms for winter sports, while internet streams are available on weekdays.
4. Apart from the major channels, Eurosport also offers a thorough winter sports program, with a total of 1100 hours across its various platforms.
5. Viewers can tune in to broadcasters like Eurosport or the streaming service discovery+ for a more comprehensive selection of winter sports events.
6. Besides biathlon and ski jumping, which are popular among viewers, other winter sports like cross-country skiing and tobogganing are also showcased during the TV festivities.

Source: www.dpa.com