Setting even higher targets for next year after record viewership figures of this year’s race, the Giro d’Italia organisers yesterday presented the 2011 numbers at an RAI event dedicated to the race at Sportel Monaco.
The sports convention deals with television rights and saw the official disclosure of the popularity of this year’s race.
According to those figures, the race reached a potential audience of over 800 million viewers worldwide, with a live broadcast in 168 countries over five continents. In addition to that, Eurosport, which broadcast to 33 milllion viewers in 74 countries across Europe and Asia, increased its broadcast time by ten percent when compared to the previous year.
There was an increase in viewers on RAI channels in Italy, up to 115 million viewers and encompassing a 66% increase in RaiSport 1 digital frequencies, plus an overall total of 184 hours of live broadcasts.
Those increases come despite the Giro d’Italia ramping up its online broadcasting of the event. Rai.it web pages had a daily average of 24,963 unique users and a total of 2,083,082 viewers (+2% and +9% respectively compared to 2010), with an overall total of almost 3.5 million when the RaiSport1 and Rai 3 live webcast figures were included.
The Giro d’Italia, which has been noticeable in recent months as being the Grand Tour to best embrace Twitter, Facebook and its general social media presence, is aiming to further expand its coverage and viewership next year.
Rai Deputy General Manager Gianfranco Comanducci spoke a little about plans for next year when he appeared at the Sportel Monaco event. “More than 160 Countries in the world will have the chance to watch the Giro d’Italia in 2012. This is the evidence that cycling and the Corsa Rosa are in the heart of sport fans everywhere,” he stated.
“We aim at reaching 300 million viewers at each stage. Playing the role of public service, we continue to bring in the viewers’ homes the beauty of our country, places of art, culture, the charm of the mountains and the small Italian villages, more and more attentive to the values of each area.”
Comanducci appeared alongside RCS Sport CEO Giacomo Catano and General Manager Michele Acquarone, while world championship silver medallist Matt Goss (HTC Highroad), Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) and Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) represented the peloton in attending.
Catano praised the work done by Rai and the RCS Sport team, saying that cooperation has boosted the Giro’s presence worldwide.
Next year’s race will take place between May 5th and 27th. The route of the event will be officially unveiled this coming weekend, although there were claims this week that it had already been leaked.