Real Madrid’s victory over local rivals Atlético and
Sevilla win over Liverpool watched by more than 12 million across digital and
TV with
Three million people watched the Champions League
and Europa League finals live on YouTube for free, about a quarter of the 12
million-plus who caught BT’s coverage across digital and TV.
BT Sport signed a deal with YouTube to air the
European finals alongside its own mix of coverage on pay-TV and free-to-air
channels as well as on bt.com.
Saturday’s cliff hanger Champions League final, which
saw Real Madrid pip Atlético Madrid in a penalty shootout, attracted a total
audience of over 6 million viewers to BT Sport’s coverage.
The telecoms giant, which said that it aimed to make
the finals as accessible as possible despite paying £897m for the pay-TV
rights, said about 1.8 million viewers watched the match live for free on
YouTube.
Another 4.3 million watched BT’s pay-TV channel and
its free-to-air Showcase service.
Overall, BT Sport said more than 12 million people
watched its coverage of the Champions League and Europa League finals.
“BT Sport set
out to begin a new era of live mass broadcast for major sporting events,
combining TV and digital media to make this the most widely available and
social broadcast of a Uefa Champions League and Europa League final ever,” said
Delia Bushell, managing director of BT Sport & TV.
The recent Europa League final, which saw Liverpool
defeated by Sevilla, drew a YouTube audience of more thna 1 million.
The match drew a total TV audience of 5 million, and
a peak of 3.6 million.
Just under half of all TV viewing of the two finals
was on BT’s free-to-air Showcase channel.
“Our aim is to bring top-quality sport to more
people and we will continue to look for new and innovative ways of doing this
across the full range of platforms that viewers are now using to consume
content,” said Bushell.
Culled from the guardian
Culled from the guardian
