The inaugural European Championships, a gathering of seven individual sports has been hailed as a major success with audiences tripling for some sports across the key European markets.
The Championships were covered extensively by RTÉ here in Ireland with live coverage of our medallists in Gymnastics, Swimming, Rowing and Athletics.
The same level of coverage was provided by public service broadcasters across the continent. In Germany ARD/ZDF reported reaching a total audience of 43 million while the BBC claimed an overall audience of 20 million and a peak of 6.4 million.
“The EBU, our Member broadcasters and the Federations took on the challenge of this new event right from the start, with a desire to go ‘all out’ and deliver something really innovative and special for audiences and for the sports,” said Stefan Kurten, the EBU’s Director of Sport.
“With over 40 broadcasters offering vast daily coverage of the highest quality, it shows that this has really paid off.”
“Only the united power of Europe’s free-to-air broadcasters, the EBU membership, can deliver this kind of coverage and support.”
“The massive coverage across Europe’s multitude of broadcasters has been fantastic as this ‘aggregation effect’ was a cornerstone goal of this first combined European Championships,” added Matt Smith Executive Director of the World Rowing Federation (FISA).
“Our athletes have really relished the major event feel, making these European Rowing Championships really memorable for them.”
“We are also really impressed with the high quality of the host broadcast equipment, including a cable cam to cover the last 250 metres, the fantastic images created by the broadcast team and the four days of complete coverage, enabling such wide audiences to enjoy every minute of this great Championship.”
Bidding to stage the next edition of the European Championships in 2022 is already underway with a decision expected shortly.
This year’s Championships were shared between Glasgow and Berlin and it may be that a similar approach will be taken again.
Ireland sent over 100 athletes to compete and ended up with Gold for Rhys McClenaghan in Gymnastics, Silver for Thomas Barr in athletics and the O’Donovan Brothers in Rowing and Bronze for Shane Ryan in Swimming.
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