LILLE (EuroBasket 2015) - The Group Phase and Round of 16 stages of EuroBasket 2015 have featured some thrilling, entertaining and closely-fought games and this has been reflected in some impressive broadcast ratings as well as attendance records.

ARENA ATTENDANCES
Saturday's Round of 16 clash between host France and Turkey set a new European attendance record for an indoor basketball game with 26,135 spectators on hand at Pierre Mauroy Stadium in Lille, France, to see the home side and defending champions win 76-53 and move on to the Quarter-Finals.

Attendance has reached a new high with 560,000 spectators taking in the Group Phase and Round of 16 games. This compares very favourably compared to the total tournament attendance numbers of 2013 (328,000) and 2011 (357,000).

More than 410,000 spectators witnessed the 60 Group Phase games played in Berlin, Montpellier, Riga and Zagreb from 5-10 September. These fans saw some memorable and closely-fought contests as the outcome of 17 of them came down to the final possession.

BROADCAST AUDIENCES
The France-Turkey game was a massive hit for French pay TV broadcasters Canal+ - who are carrying in-depth coverage of the championship on Basket+, a channel created specifically for the occasion - with some 700,000 subscribers. It is one of the best ever audiences in the channel's history and surpasses the 680,000 who watched the EuroBasket 2013 Final between France and Lithuania.

In Turkey, the game had a viewership of 874,000 on NTV Spor for its fourth-best rating so far in 2015. It was 4.5 times higher than the channel’s average market share.

While Germany fell short of making it out of the Group Phase, their games aired by public service broadcasters ARD and ZDF netted some high TV audience figures, with each watched by at least 1 million viewers. The agonising 77-76 defeat to Spain on the night of Thursday 10 September - the last day of the Group Phase - was watched by an average of 1.46 million viewers, generating a market share of 8.6 percent, the highest rating of the tournament in Germany.

Meanwhile, Spanish free-to-air commercial broadcasters Cuatro have seen a 29 percent increase in their ratings. Spain's games at EuroBasket 2015 are averaging a rating of 1.82 million, compared to 1.41 million for EuroBasket 2013.

Spain's Group B game against Turkey - played at 21:00 (CET) on Sunday 6 September - pulled in an audience of 2.16 million viewers, for a viewing share of 14 percent, while their game against Iceland on Wednesday 16 September had an audience of 2.01 million.

The Spaniards' Round of 16 win over Poland on Saturday was watched by 1.82 million, for a market share of 17.4 percent - the highest in Spain so far and the highest rating for a sport programme in Spain on the day.

In Greece, Antenna TV - who are combining with OTE to show all 79 games of the competition in the country - registered an average audience of 1.03 million viewers for the Greek team's game against Croatia on Sunday 6 September. The team's Round of 16 defeat of Belgium was viewed by 971,800 people for a market share of 37.9 percent, which is considerably higher than the 17.2 percent average market share the channel registered in 2014. Antenna also pulled in surprisingly good ratings for games not featuring their national team, for example the Italy-Germany overtime thriller on Wednesday 9 September achieved a rating of 17.8 percent.

Sky Italia - who are airing 52 live games, complete with pre-game, half-time and post-game studio shows - have reaped the benefits of their extensive promotion and coverage so far. With 397,000 average viewers and a peak of 585,000 for Italy’s night time game against Spain on Tuesday 8 September, the Italian pay TV broadcasters set a new record for basketball which more than doubled the previous peak result.

Serbia's Round of 16 win over Finland on Sunday had a viewership of 874,300 on Serbia's RTS1 for a market share of 43.2 percent.

###

About FIBA

FIBA (fiba.com) – the world governing body for basketball – is an independent association formed by 215 National Basketball Federations throughout the world. It is recognised as the sole competent authority in basketball by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
 
For further information about FIBA visit fiba.com or follow FIBA on facebook.com/fiba, twitter.com/fiba, instagram.com/fiba and youtube.com/fiba.