Record TV audience watched the 2019 World Orienteering Championships

27 August 2019

The live tv broadcast from the Nokian Tyres World Orienteering Championships reached a record number of live television followers in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Estonia; 1.5 million people watched the final Relay via the TV broadcasters channels.

The successful championships held in Norway this month was not only a success at the arena. The high quality live tv broadcast reached a historical number of followers in several countries. The championships were broadcast live in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Estonia. In addition, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland showed highlights from the event. The World Orienteering Championships was on the top 10 list of most watched programs last week in several of the countries.

Above photos: Broadcasting LIVE TV from this year's World Orienteering Championships. Photo credits: IOF / WOC 2019

The broadcasters have different ways of measuring tv audience and for exact numbers please check each broadcaster. Based on the broadcasters’ numbers the estimated total audience was over 1.5 million for the Relay and 1 million for each of the Middle and Long Distance competitions.

Some examples:

More than 400,000 watched Swedish SVT when Tove Alexandersson crossed the finish line in the Long Distance.
More than 500,000 watched the finish of the Relay at Finnish YLE.
More than 200,000 watched the Mens Relay on Norway’s NRK, averaged over the entire 2 hour length of the broadcast.
On average for all competitions, every third television which was turned on in Sweden and every fourth television which was turned on in Norway was tuned to the World Orienteering Championships (WOC) broadcasts.

Besides broadcast television, WOC was also streamed live on each broadcaster’s web tv channel. Each race was watched by up to 100,000 people on the web.

Tom Hollowell, Secretary General at the International Orienteering Federation, says: "We have had a lot of positive feedback from the broadcasters about the improved level of the production. Thanks to the tv project work we have done over the last year and excellent cooperation with the WOC organisers and the various broadcasters we can now present a top-quality sport production. WOC 2019 certainly shows orienteering as a very exciting and interesting tv sport."

WOC was also broadcast live on International Orienteering Federation’s (IOF's) streaming platform LIVE Orienteering. As the event was sent live in most of the big orienteering markets, the audience here was slightly smaller than at previous WOC's. 25% of the followers on LIVE Orienteering were from Switzerland. All broadcasts from WOC are now available for free on LIVE Orienteering.

The IOF will continue working on the tv project, with focus on making orienteering even more understandable for viewers who are new to the sport. The next tv production by the IOF is the Orienteering World Cup Round 3 in Switzerland at the end of September and the Orienteering World Cup Final in China in October.

Tom Hollowell, says: "The ambition is to show the last World Cup rounds in as many countries as possible. And as all other IOF tv productions it will of course be possible to watch all competitions on LIVE Orienteering."

Above photos: (Left): Filming the athletes in action at one of the controls. Photo credit: IOF/WOC 2019; (Middle): Waterproofs needed for camera crew and their cameras. Photo credit: IOF/WOC 2019; (Right): IOF commentator Katherine Bett. Photo credit: Rob Lines.