International sports broadcaster Eurosport has reported significant ratings growth for its coverage of the US Open tennis grand slam in Europe.
Eurosport holds rights to the US Open across the continent, with the exception of the UK and Ireland, and said the 2019 tournament, which concluded at the weekend, saw double-digit year-on-year growth on linear and additional growth on OTT platform Eurosport Player and Eurosport.com.
Eurosport in Germany (30 per cent), France (136 per cent), Spain (22 per cent) and Romania (122 per cent) all reported significant growth with Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2 registering an uplift of 25 per cent and 37 per cent respectively across the top 11 markets of Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain and Sweden.
Eurosport said the weekend’s women’s and men’s finals contributed strongly to the final overall audience numbers. Serena Williams’ unsuccessful bid for a 24th grand slam singles title against eventual champion Bianca Andreescu saw a 28 per cent year-on-year growth while Rafael Nadal’s win over Daniil Medvedev was watched by the fourth largest audience ever in Spain. The same match saw average viewer numbers up by 62 per cent in comparison with the 2018 men’s singles final.
Meanwhile, Eurosport Player enjoyed a 22 per cent increase in video views and a 37 per cent uplift in minutes watched versus 2018. Eurosport.com (web and app) reported year-on-year unique user increases in Spain of (41 per cent), Italy (24 per cent), Russia (19 per cent), Germany (11 per cent), France (seven per cent) and Denmark (61 per cent).
In June, Eurosport reported a 31 per cent year-on-year increase in unique views of Roland-Garros via Eurosport Player and the Eurosport app, while Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2 also reported substantial year-on-year growth for the French grand slam in the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, France, the UK and Norway.