TRONDHEIM (Dagbladet): As reported by Dagbladet in mid-September, television data for cross-country skiing is plummeting. Last season the sport of cross-country skiing experienced blood-red TV numbers compared to recent years.
– There is a 31 percent drop in TV broadcast hours. Eurosport broadcast 1,100 hours less because it lost the rights in the Nordic branches to NENT – which does not cover the World Cup on a comparable scale, writes the company Nielsen, which made the report for FIS.
The figures shocked several people, including ski president Tove Moe Dyrhaug. She doesn’t really like what she sees.
– It’s something we need to take seriously, says the ski president to Dagbladet.
Horrible figures amaze: – Not good
Indicate several reasons
The ski president believes there are several reasons to blame for the dramatic fall that the TV figures show.
– The fall probably has several reasons, but the pandemic is probably part of it, the drop out is another and that we must build profiles, believes the president of skiing.
Someone who has also achieved development is Therese Johaug.
He has previously directed criticisms against this women and men will now travel the same distance in the World Cupand I don’t think this is the way to go to make cross-country skiing more interesting in the future.
– This means that the difference will be greater and may not be interesting for viewers to watch. I don’t know if this is the way to go if we want to make cross-country skiing more interesting in the future and with a view to creating environments for good girls. I’m not going to beat it north and down until we’ve tried it one winter, but we have to look at what can make cross-country skiing popular in the future too, the woman from Dalsbygda said to Dagbladet in September.
Television rights
In 2019, the NENT Group was insured (Viaplay Group since May 2022) has acquired the rights to show winter sports from the Nordic countries from 2021 inclusive. An agreement that spans five years.
In addition to the exhibition rights of the Alpine Skiing, Cross-Country Skiing, Ski Jumping, Combined, Snowboarding and Freestyle and Freeskiing World Cup rights, the company has secured the World Cup rights in the aforementioned disciplines.
This has resulted in most winter sports from 2021 being broadcast on the media company’s channels: Viaplay and TV 3 and the other Viasat channels, many of which are paid.
The president of skiing: – Currently with a boycott
Almost halved
In Norway, the airtime of cross-country skiing on national TV was almost halved last season, according to the report. the report as the Nielsen company did for the FIS. In 2020/21, more than 211 hours were broadcast on Norwegian TV. This year the number was 117.
The ski president thinks the ski association was too bad in announcing how different content is broadcast after NRK lost the rights.
– When we change the channel, we need to get even better at showing where things are being broadcast. It’s really something the ski board and administration need to look at, she says.
He believes it is important that the ski association take the figures seriously and find out why the fall is so big.
– We must at least break it down and see why there is such a dramatic fall. It probably has something to do with rights, channel shifting, timing and all sorts of things, but it’s something we need to work on and take it seriously.
New one million dollar deal for Klæbo
Extremely important for the interest in cross-country skiing
In June it became known that Viaplay had chosen to sell part of its rights, selling the TV rights to WC in the Nordic events in Planica in 2023 and Trondheim in 2025 in NRK.
The president of skiing has no doubts about how important this is for the interest in cross-country skiing.
– I think it’s extremely important. It is important that we have distributed it a bit, but it is also important that NRK is broadcasting the toilets in Trondheim and Planica.
