FIBT Produced Bobsleigh & Skeleton TV Shows Reach 406 Million Viewers

Milan, Italy (April 19, 2005) -- The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (FIBT) produced bobsleigh and skeleton television programming had an extremely successful 2004-2005 season, reaching 406.3 million viewers with 70 hours of World Cup and 20 hours of World Championship coverage for networks across the globe.

The FIBT generated 239 hours of actual playing time for its productions, 75 hours of which aired live.  The average market share for all programming was 5.85%; with men’s bobsleigh the highest at an average of 7.3% across all networks. 

“The FIBT continued to advance to new markets, especially Russia, and expanded its comprehensive coverage of women’s bobsleigh and skeleton,” said FIBT President Robert H. Storey. “The FIBT capitalized on new race formats (20-1 second heat for bobsleigh) and benefited from the consolidation of races that had all disciplines competing each week at the same track.”

The FIBT is unique among international sports federations; it owns its worldwide rights and it produces its own programs. Networks that showed extensive coverage were Eurosport, Eurosport2, ARD (Germany), ZDF (Germany), RTR Sport and Channel 7 (Russia), Speed Channel (USA), CBC (Canada), SRG/SSR (Switzerland), Latvian TV (Latvia), and ORF (Austria). Eurosport gives the FIBT broad Pan-European distribution, reaching 285,000 million viewers (96 million homes) in 54 countries with broadcasts in 18 languages.

“By producing its own signal, the FIBT is able to insure that all broadcasts conform to a similar style and there is a consistent delivery in content and graphics,” said Storey, who created FIBT Television in 1995.

The Men’s bobsleigh World Cup coverage provided the highest visibility, with 243 different channels showing 1420 broadcasts (including news reports), reaching a cumulative audience of 227.31 million viewers.  The 2-man and 4-man World Championships coverage added an additional 61.55 million viewers.  Coverage totals for men’s bobsleigh was 102 hours for the 2-man and 4-man World and 35.5 hours for the World Championships

Women’s Bobsleigh coverage attracted 52.93 million viewers for seven World Cup races (17 hours,52 minutes) and additional 15.37 million for the 2005 World Championships in Calgary, Canada (4 hour3, 45 minutes). Skeleton productions had 43.76 million World Cup viewers for 14 men’s and women’s races (36, hours, 37 minutes of actual coverage) and an additional 5.35 million for the World Championships (11 hours, 52 minutes).

The 2004-2005 season also saw the most extensive coverage ever in Russia on RTR Sport with live men’s bobsleigh and delayed coverage for both skeleton and women’s bobsleigh. 

”The rapid development of programming in Russia shows how the FIBT is committed to the expansion of bobsleigh and skeleton in new markets,” said Storey.  

Broad North American coverage continued on SPEED Channel in the USA with 21 one-hour shows, two shows on NBC (Ice 2004), and CBC in Canada (World Cup highlights plus 5.5 hours of same day and delayed World Championship coverage). In Asia, FIBT men’s bobsleigh debuted in South Korea (KBS Sky).  The FIBT also enjoyed global coverage from the Gillette World of Sport Special and on TWI’s Trans World Sport. 

Data for the annual FIBT television report was collected by IFM International Sportanalysen GmbH of Karlsruhe, Germany.

FIBT Television – Summary of Broadcasts for 2004-2005

Don Krone, Coordinating Producer FIBT-TV
mailtdkrone@bobsleigh.com