The Australian Open served up record-breaking audiences for Eurosport with the coverage reaching a staggering 46 million viewers during the first Grand Slam of the year from 15th to 28th January. This is the highest ever reach for a Grand Slam tournament on Eurosport.

No other single tennis tournament on the channel has been seen by as many people (46 million). Eurosport’s total audiences increased by 17.3% compared to the same event in 2000 with ‘LIVE’ audiences going through the roof, an incredible 44% increase.

Eurosport’s success reflected the sensational line up of tennis ‘super stars’ including the comeback of Jennifer Capriati and the ever popular André Agassi as the champions of the tournament. The most popular broadcast in terms of audience was the women’s match between last year’s champion – Martina Hingis and Serena Williams played on January 24th which attracted a peak audience of 2.4 million!

These figures confirm Eurosport’s commitment to bring the viewer more than just tennis coverage. During the Australian Open, as well as top quality, round-the-clock broadcasts, the tennis highlights (58% audience increase against 2000) were hosted by some great tennis stars: Pat Cash, Mark Phillippoussis. The worlds greatest pole volter Sergei Bubka, also made a guest appearance!

And Viewers could interact with the commentators by asking questions in the internet forum on eurosport.com which registered 4 million visits just for the Australian Open alone (available in 6 language versions). Eurosport commentators then selected questions to be answered on-air every day. Bringing viewers even closer to the heart of the action.

89 million viewers watched tennis on Eurosport in 2000. With the success of the first grand slam and other major tournaments to be broadcast this year (WTA, ATP, French Open – Roland Garros etc.) 2001 is expected to be even more successful.

Press contact: Susanah Murphy
Tel: +33.140.93.81.42
Fax: +33.140.93.83.50
smurphy@eurosport.co.uk