Eurosport attracts over 15m Fans to Opening Days of Kazan Universiade

PARIS/KAZAN – FISU broadcast partner Eurosport has achieved its best ever start to a Universiade event with audience reach for the opening five days double that of the same period during the previous Summer Universiade in Shenzhen 2011.

The multi-sport format being produced by the broadcaster has been a hit with sports fans already, who can watch over 120 hours of live coverage from the 27th Summer Universiade from Kazan, across the Eurosport and Eurosport 2 channels.

For the 2013 edition Eurosport is broadcasting nearly double the volume of live programming over the opening five-day period, compared to the 2011 event.

Arnaud Simon, the Eurosport Group’s TV Content Director for broadcast & programmes said: “We are truly delivering an ‘Olympic’ standard of broadcast for the Summer Universiade – the multi-sport production features action from 10 different sports and already the competitions are proving highly popular with audiences who appreciate Eurosport’s expertise. The cross channel strategy, which optimises both our channels to promote and broadcast the action, gives the viewers more choice and better access to the sports they want to see, live. The very positive audiences for the opening days of the Kazan 2013 Summer Universiade are a reflection of Eurosport’s unique ability to deliver such a large-scale event to fans across Europe.”

Thus far, the most popular sports being enjoyed from Kazan on Eurosport are volleyball and athletics, with coverage also being shown from the basketball, canoeing, diving, rowing, artistic gymnastics, football, swimming and weightlifting events.

Eurosport announced in April 2013 it was delivering the most comprehensive multi-screen coverage ever planned for a Summer Universiade event and would mark a step-change in the way elite university sport is broadcast and promoted.

Eurosport is broadcasting live coverage of ten different sports between 6 – 17 July and has editorial staff on the ground in Kazan reporting on all the breaking news and sharing interviews with the stars, heroes and story makers of the Universiade.

To complement the live action, the University Sports section on Eurosport.com, Europe’s most popular sports news website, is publishing the latest news, updates and results.

The 27th Summer Universiade from Kazan is the first in a series of Summer and Winter Universiade events Eurosport will be broadcasting through a six-year agreement with FISU.

(Source: Eurosport)