9th Jun 2015 10:38
Hanover (dpa-AFX) - Television audiences for the Bundesliga rose in the season just finished despite Bayern Munich's dominance leading some pundits to label the championship as boring, figures showed on Tuesday.
ZDF's "Aktuelle Sportstudio" highlights programme recorded an average of 2.15 million viewers despite hitting screens at 11 pm (2100 GMT). This corresponds to a market share of 12.8% with both numbers increasing from the 2013/14 season (2.13 million/12.6%).
Sportschau, on Germany's other state broadcaster ARD, saw its viewing figures go up from 5.15 to 5.32 million while its market share of German TV watchers at 6.30 pm (1630 GMT) on Saturdays rose to 24.2 per cent from 23.8% a year earlier.
"The interest of football fans does not only focus on the question of the German champions," explained ZDF sports director Dieter Gruschwitz.
An exciting Bundesliga relegation battle which ran until the final day of the regular season, with Bayern's championship already wrapped up weeks earlier, helped boost viewing figures.
The relegation playoff between SV Hamburg and Karlsruhe was also popular with the two legs bringing in audiences of 9.3 million and 9.49 million, akin to the figures seen for Germany national team games.
Pay TV provider Sky, which broadcasts all Bundesliga games live and is the biggest financial contributor to the German Football League (DFL), was also satisfied as its number of subscribers rose to more than 4.2 million, thanks in part to football.
"It does not suggest a lack of impetus," DFL chief executive Christian Seifert told kicker magazine when asked about the Bundesliga audience figures, which officials hope can rise further next term if teams such as VfL Wolfsburg can better challenge Bayern.
The increase will give the league ammunition when discussing the next Bundesliga TV deal which is expected to be signed in the first half of 2016. The current four-year contract worth a total of 2.5 billion euros (2.8 billion dollars) ends in 2017.
Copyright dpa
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