The International Cycling Union (UCI) and its partner, the European Broadcasting Union consortium of public-service broadcasters, have hailed record viewing figures for the recently concluded 2018 Road World Championships.
The event took place from September 23-30 in Innsbruck-Tirol, Austria, with television viewers throughout Europe watching 47 million hours of action on free-to-air channels in 20 countries. Overall, the event was aired in 53 European countries, with coverage provided by sports broadcaster Eurosport in non-free-to-air countries.
Viewers in France (France Télévisions), Italy (Rai), the Netherlands (NPO), Belgium (VRT and RTBF) and host country Austria (ORF) watched the most coverage. The men’s elite road race on the concluding day enjoyed an all-time viewership record with fans watching a total of 21.5 million hours on EBU members’ free-to-air channels.
The race attracted peak audiences of over a million viewers in both France and Italy and over 500,000 in Belgium and the Netherlands. In Flemish-speaking Belgium the race had a 60-per-cent share of the television audience while in the Netherlands, Switzerland and French-speaking Belgium over 20 per cent of television viewers were watching the race.
The women’s elite road race on the preceding day was also broadcast on 53 countries across Europe including 18 territories covered by EBU members, with peak audiences of between 500,000 and a million viewers in the Netherlands (NOS), the UK (BBC) and France (France 3).
Additionally, the 2018 Road World Championships were broadcast in almost 100 countries around the world.