RECORD VIEWING NUMBERS TUNE IN FOR HISTORIC FOUR HILLS TOURNAMENT

A peak audience number of seven million viewers across the Eurosport Network tuned in to watch Ryoyu Kobayashi become just the third man of all-time to win the Four Hills “grand slam” as the Japanese sensation claiming the honour at each of the events in Garmisch, Innsbruck and Bischofschofen.

Boosted by exclusive coverage and fans hoping to see countryman Kamil Stoch repeat his heroics from the 2018 edition of the Four Hills tournament, Eurosport recorded its best-ever audience in the history of the channel in Poland during the qualifying session of the first event in Oberstdorf in December. The same session in Oberstdorf, meanwhile, was the sixth best audience of all-time across the Eurosport Network – and the best winter sports audience ever.

As well as Eurosport in Poland, double-digit year-on-year average audience number increases were also recorded on Eurosport in Italy (+43%), France (+36%) and Sweden (17%) with an increase of 8% in Germany and 5% in the Netherlands for the Four Hills Tournament.

Emir Osmanbegovic, Eurosport SVP Sports Content and Production, said: “While we are always looking at ways to bring our content to more people on more screens, there is still clearly a huge demand for watching premium sporting events – such as the Four Hills Tournament - by traditional means such as linear TV.

“The numbers for this year’s coverage of Four Hills are particularly impressive compared with the 2018 edition given anticipation last year was reaching a crescendo with the Winter Olympics on the horizon. Eurosport has a deep-rooted heritage in winter sports and we have attracted a new demographic of viewer that have become fans through our award-winning coverage of the Games last February.

"The Four Hills Tournament kicks off a huge year for winter sports on Eurosport - all three World Championship events, starting at Are in Sweden in early February, will be screened on our platforms where we will combine our local expertise in these markets with global scale."

Last year, as Home of the Olympics in Europe, Eurosport reported record viewer numbers for the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, with 58% of Europe’s population watching the event across Discovery’s top ten markets.

ENDS.