COMBINING LIVE AND IMMERSIVE CONTENT DRIVES EUROSPORT DIGITAL GROWTH DURING ROLAND-GARROS

Eurosport has reported significant year-on-year growth of its audience on its digital platforms across Europe, in addition to viewers watching on discovery+*, following the first week of play at Roland-Garros, as fans streamed the action and engaged with exclusive content in their millions.

Shining Longer with Every Court, Every Match and Every Point Covered
Eurosport’s premium coverage and storytelling has once again showcased the world-class clay court action from Roland-Garros, featuring live and on-demand coverage of every point and every court available to stream uninterrupted, and covering every story that matters on and off the court.

The success of some of Europe’s biggest stars, including Iga Swiatek, Daniil Medvedev, Rafael Nadal and Jannik Sinner, has contributed to double-digit year-on-year increases in streaming numbers in a host of countries during the first week, including Poland (+122%), Spain (+58%), Russia (+35%) the UK (+24%), Italy (+23%) and the Netherlands (+12%). Across Eurosport’s top 12 markets**, there has been a 24% rise in streaming numbers.

Keeping Fans Close to Their Heroes
Throughout the tournament to date, some of the greatest champions ever to grace the red clay of Roland-Garros have joined Eurosport’s Mats Wilander and Barbara Schett virtually in the Eurosport Cube, which offers fans unique access to the sport’s biggest stars despite broadcasters’ reducing their footprints at Roland-Garros in the current environment. Serena Williams, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have all been teleported into the Cube straight from stepping off the court to dissect their performances exclusively for tennis fans watching on eEurosport.

As well as making history by showing the first ever night session from Roland-Garros featuring Novak Djokovic’s win over Tennys Sandgren to fans across Europe***, new content away from the live action has seen exclusive documentaries Rafa 14 and Building the Legend tell stories of the achievements witnessed on court to new fans which has driven digital growth.

Telling the Stories That Matter
Fans have also been flooding to the number one online destination in Europe – Eurosport.com – to get up-to-date with the breaking news from Roland-Garros and catch the expert views from tennis royalty including Mats Wilander, Boris Becker, Chris Evert and Alex Corretja. Overall, Eurosport.com’s online audience has seen a 100% increase versus the 2020 edition of Roland-Garros during the first eight days of the tournament.

Notable year-on-year uplifts in online traffic include Romania (+527%), Germany (+136%), the UK (+147%), Russia (+119%), Spain (+105%), Norway (+92%), France (+52%), Italy (+31%) and the Netherlands (+19%) with overall page views across Europe up by 52% and added features and original content such as Players’ Voice, which publishes the first-person views of some of the game’s biggest stars including Iga Swiatek and Frances Tiafoe which has captivated new audiences. Eurosport’s Trailblazers series has also launched two brand new episodes during Roland-Garros featuring Althea Gibson and Billie Jean King to further boost tennis’ ultimate digital ecosystem. 

Scott Young, SVP Content and Production at Eurosport, said: “As the Home of Tennis we recognise we can’t stand still and this year we have further developed our digital offer to pack it full of exclusive content, new original formats and the best views and expertise to complement our comprehensive live Roland-Garros offering.

“Viewers love the second week of a Grand Slam when we reach the business end of the tournament, so we are confident we can build on the huge interest we’ve seen in our live streaming, online journalism and all-round storytelling before we show the crowning of the new king and queen of the clay court at the weekend.”

This year’s tournament finishes on Sunday 13 June while Eurosport has broadcast every Roland-Garros since 1989.

* Roland-Garros is available to watch on discovery+ in Denmark, Finland, Italy, Norway and Sweden.
**Eurosport’s top 12 markets are: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, UK, Netherlands, Russia, Poland, Romania
***Eurosport’s digital live and highlights coverage on the Eurosport App excludes France in 2021.
All increases compared to audience performance during Roland-Garros 2020