For Jacques Braun, Vice-president of Eurodata TV Worldwide, "after more than 20 years experience in this business, Eurodata TV Worldwide remains the best way to get official and unbiased TV audience figures from local peoplemeter systems around the world. Our neutral position and solid network of partners guarantee that there is no interference in the final results provided. The amounts engaged by sponsors require putting TV ratings value at the center of the field: the FIFA 2006 World Cup gathered an audience of 1.1 billion unique viewers based on a 53 markets study".

This year started with the US Superbowl which gathered a new record of 106 million viewers on CBS one week before the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Winter OG which was watched by more than 32 million viewers on NBC. The local Canadian broadcaster CTV reached an average audience of 9 million for this ceremony but the highest audience was the ice hockey gold medal match USA vs Canada with an historical 10.3 million viewers (a 56.7% market share) on CTV.

"The combination of Winter Olympic Games held in North America and a FIFA World Cup held the same year in South Africa builds the perfect platform for TV audience records all around the planet", says Florent Simon, Sports Manager at Eurodata TV Worldwide.

Still in the US market, the Vancouver OG programs on NBC scored more than 20 million viewers on 15 occasions, an amazing performance as NBC exceeded this score only 12 times during the whole year of 2009.

European countries benefited from live prime time broadcast during the Olympics which allowed Northern European countries to reach what may end up being the best TV ratings of 2010.

We can underline the following figures:
- 85.4% market share for NRK1 in Norway during the men's 20 km biathlon
- 9.5 million viewers on TVP1 in Poland for ski jumping final
- 12 best performing sport programs since January 2009 in Sweden

Yearly championships like Formula One, Rugby 6 Nations or UEFA Champions League also performed very well.

The Formula One season started strongly with more than 10.5 million viewers on RTL in Germany for the first Grand Prix which is nearly twice 2009 TV ratings, thanks to Michael Schumacher's comeback. Italian Tifosi were waiting for Ferrari's return to winning ways and RAI1 reached 9.5 million viewers (+25% compared to 2009 Bahrein GP) for the opening GP in Bahrein.

France recorded its 6 nations grand slam with victory over England on France 2 in front of 8.3 million viewers - simply the best rugby performance since the rugby World Cup 2007 held in France.

The UEFA Champions League final held for the first time on a Saturday drew in an audience in Germany 81% higher than the previous final: 11.8 million viewers on SAT.1 watched the Bayern Munich defeat.

After this first round of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, Eurodata TV Worldwide and its partners have already registered amazing TV ratings all around the world even in non-participating countries.

In China, local sport channel CCTV5 broadcast with success the match Argentina vs South Korea, delivering an average audience of 39.7 million viewers.

Also in Asia and despite the time difference, South Korean broadcaster SBS gathered 7 million viewers for South Korea vs Greece, the best TV audience since February 2007.

Local South African broadcaster SABC1 exceeded 8 million viewers supporting the Bafana Bafana for the first two matches: 1 million more than the 2009 FIFA Confederations cup semi final which saw South Africa take on Brazil.

Germany progressed to the last 16 for the 15th time in 15 World Cups and viewers still like it. They were more than 29.2 million to see their team win their last group match against Ghana on ARD. This TV audience is just below the 2006 semi final Germany vs Italy broadcast on ZDF (29.7 million).

Despite the elimination of France and Italy, TF1 in France gathered 14 million fans and Italian broadcaster RAI1 17 million which in each case may well remain the highest TV ratings of 2010.

The football industry is surely hoping that "soccer" will continue to grow in the USA, following their game against England which gathered 14.2 million viewers on ABC and Univision and their last match versus Ghana which scored the largest soccer audience in history with 19.4 million viewers.

All the results of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup and all other major events worldwide are available through Eurodata TV Worldwide's unique platform. Comprehensive analysis and all TV ratings will be available in the 2010 edition of the "Yearly Sport Key Facts" report.

Sources: Eurodata TV Worldwide - Relevant Partners -SAARF South Africa, AUDITEL  Italy, MMS Sweden, CSM Media Research China, Nielsen Audience Measurement South Korea, AGF GfK Fernsehforschung Germany, Mediametrie France, Nielsen Audience Measurement Poland, TNS Gallup Norway, BBM  Canada, Nielsen Media Research USA

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