SBS‘s fantastic Tour de France for the last three weeks has averaged around 200,000+ viewers each evening. Since Thursday night as the Tour reached a crescendo in the Alps viewers tuned in droves with 456,000 viewers watching Stage 18 and Stage 19 scoring a then record 604,000 viewers for the multicultural broadcaster’s Tour de France coverage.
Last night’s time trial however set a new record for SBS’s Tour de France coverage. In its 21st year of coverage of the Tour 690,000 viewers (according to @MediaweekAUS) tuned in to stage 21 to watch Cadel Evans destroy the competition by turning a 57 second deficit to Andy Schleck into a 1:34 minute lead (also finishing 2nd by 7 seconds in the stage behind Tony Martin) over the difficult 42km Grenoble course. This delivered SBS its best nightly share of the year with 10.6% of viewers (according to @MediaweekAUS).
Overnight’s Tour de France coverage outrated last night’s AFL coverage on Ten and Rugby Coverage on Nine (according to @MediaweekAUS). Comparatively earlier in the year 718,000 viewers tuned into 7TWO’s Wimbledon coverage to see Bernard Tomic loss to Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon quarter-finals.
Don’t forget to tune into the final stage tonight to see the maillot jaune wearer ride along the Champs–Élysées as the winner-elect and the sprinters in the Tour fight for glory on the final stage of this year’s Tour. Also on Monday night @ 10PM on SBS make sure you watch a special on Cadel Evans’ tour efforts.
This is a remarkable moment in Australian sport and watching Mike Tomalaris (SBS Tour de France host) describe with emotion the enormity of Cadel’s efforts in the overnight broadcast reflects this moment.
For more on the Tour de France check out SBS’s dedicated website at www.sbs.com.au/tdf.
UPDATE: SBS sets another new viewing record for TDF coverage on Sunday night with 704,000 viewers tuning in to see Cadel Evans confirm his historic victory.
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