After the World Cup in Qatar, ZDF draws a “mixed balance”. Compared to previous tournaments, the TV ratings have collapsed massively. The director identifies three causes.
The interest of TV viewers in the football World Cup in Qatar was significantly lower than in previous tournaments. The director of Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), Norbert Himmler, said before the final: “That’s a mixed record for everyone involved. We’ve noticed a roughly 30 to 40 percent lower viewer participation compared to comparable tournaments in recent years.” Himmler said: “I think the season plays a role. It also has to do with the venue and the sporting performance of the German team.”
With a view to the future, the director of the public broadcaster in Mainz added: “The venues for the next tournaments will not be a problem. That is already foreseeable. I assume that we will have the big one again in another season and in other regions will feel excitement.” The upcoming European Championship 2024 will take place in Germany, two years later the USA, Canada and Mexico will host the next World Cup.
Himmler also addressed the controversial World Cup venue, Qatar, and said: “We managed to strike the right balance – on the one hand, highly qualified sports reporting and on the other hand, political and social reporting.”
ARD and ZDF took turns broadcasting World Cup games – the first was the final between Argentina and France this Sunday. An average of 13.86 million viewers watched it there. The market share was 53.6 percent. The ARD thus recorded the best value at the World Cup in Qatar for a match without German participation.
According to its own statements, ZDF had an average of 5.21 million viewers and a market share of 25.9 percent for live match broadcasts. That was to be expected a little behind the ARD, which showed two of the three German games in the preliminary round.
The most-watched game of the 2022 World Cup – after the semi-finals – was the preliminary round game between Germany and Costa Rica, which was shown on ARD, with 17.49 million viewers and a market share of 53.1 percent. In the 14 to 49-year-old segment, ZDF claims to have achieved the highest values ??to date with the German game against Spain (5.96 million, 57.7 percent market share).
(This article was first published on Monday, December 19, 2022.)