19/06/2002 : The recent Thomas & Uber Cup Finals 2002 in Guangzhou, China, was one of the most broadcast sporting events in history, excluding major multi-sports events and FIFA’s World Cup soccer.

With prime-time, live coverage of the last five days commencing in the evenings at 1930 across Asia and at 1330 for the Thomas Cup Final on 19 May – all broadcast live on terrestrial TV in China, Indonesia and Malaysia and across South East Asia on ESPN and Star Sports – there was little doubt that records would be smashed.

China’s CCTV alone broadcast 42 hours 30 minutes of live badminton from the Thomas and Uber Cup Finals 2002 between 9 and 19 May. The potential audience reach of the terrestrial CCTV2 station is a staggering 1.094 billion viewers and they had the chance to view all four semi-finals and both finals live.

90 countries and territories worldwide took the TV signal of the event

42.5 hours of live coverage produced from matches on the main TV court

1.8 billion potential live TV audience for each Thomas Cup semi-final and the final

22 hours of live prime-time broadcast on the last 5 days

46 billion potential live viewer hours

More matches produced to an international broadcast standard than ever before using 11 cameras

‘This is an amazing result for badminton boosted by the popularity of the sport in China and the exposure achieved in new markets such as the Middle-East and Africa,’ said Andrew Ryan, IBF Director of Marketing & Development.

‘We are seeing an increase in demand from broadcasters for more international ties than formerly so we are considering production from more than one TV court in future,’ he continued.

For more details contact:

International Badminton Federation
Andrew Ryan
Director of Marketing and Development
Tel:+44 1242 23 49 04
Fax:+44 1242 22 10 30
E mail: andrewr@intbadfed.org
Website: http://www.intbadfed.org