Matthew Goss, Alexandre Vinokurov and Filippo Pozzato guests of honour at the event that Rai dedicated to the Giro d’Italia at Sportel Monaco, the sports convention for television rights

Monaco, 11th October, 2011 – The vice-world champion and winner of the Milano-Sanremo Matthew Goss, the star of cycling Alexandre Vinokurov, who was Maglia Rosa several times in past editions of the Giro and starred the heroic Montalcino stage in 2010, and Filippo Pozzato, winner of one stage at the Giro d’italia, one Milano-Sanremo and one Tirreno-Adriatico, were guests of honour at the Giro d’Italia special event that took place today at Rai booth in Sportel, the international sports convention for television and the new media.

Less than seven months from the start of the 95th Giro d’Italia, which will run from 5th to 27th May 2012, Rai Deputy General Manager Gianfranco Comanducci, RCS Sport CEO Giacomo Catano and General Manager Michele Acquarone celebrated the TV success that the Corsa Rosa obtained worldwide in 2011, and aimed at a new global audience record to be reached and surpassed in 2012.

“More than 160 Countries in the world will have the chance to watch the Giro d’Italia in 2012. This is the evidence that cycling and the Corsa Rosa are in the heart of sport fans everywhere” stated Gianfranco Comanducci, Rai Deputy General Manager.

“We aim at reaching 300 million viewers at each stage – added Mr Comanducci – playing the role of public service, we continue to bring in the viewers’ homes the beauty of our country, places of art, culture, the charm of the mountains and the small Italian villages, more and more attentive to the values of each area”.

“The Giro d’Italia finds increasing interest internationally, thanks to Rai and RCS Sport team precious work, which together have launched the Giro event on the world stage and have provided additional value to the marketing in both historical countries for cycling, and in emerging markets” declared Giacomo Catano, RCS Sport Chief Executive Officer.

In 2011 the Giro d’Italia has unquestionably established itself as a multi-platform global television event, reaching a potential audience of over 800 million viewers worldwide, with a live broadcast in 168 countries through a network of partnerships that covered five continents. As an evidence of the growing global TV audience was the decision of Eurosport, one of the most established television partners of the Corsa Rosa, to 10% increase the total broadcast-time compared to 2010, in 74 countries in Europe and Asia, to reach 33 million viewers.

In Italy, Rai live broadcast (Rai 3 and RaiSport 1 with reruns on RaiSport 2) amounted to 184 hours, with 70 hours live on Rai 3 (dtt and analog) and 114 hours live on RaiSport 1 (dtt). The total cumulative audience on Rai channels has been incremental compared to 2010 reaching almost 115 million viewers, with a substantial enlargement of the audience on RaiSport 1 digital frequencies equal to + 66%.

Significant are also the data on web users who followed the Corsa Rosa through the sites of global partners of the Giro d’Italia. In Italy, Rai.it web pages dedicated to the Giro d’Italia both as a sport event, and a time for culture and entertainment, had a daily average of 24,963 unique users and a total of 2,083,082 viewers (+2% and +9% respectively compared to 2010), who come to almost 3.5 million considering the audience of RaiSport1 and Rai 3 live webcast.

New frontiers in television and multimedia are opening ahead of next Giro d’Italia, which will start from Denmark on 5th May 2012 with the aim of becoming more of a record-breaking event: from the most northern departure for a major stage race, to a challenging new approach that will expand the global audience through tighter and more effective links between television and the new media, namely the web and social networks.

Data Source: Auditel GroupM / Agb, Eurodata TV Worldwide, RCS.

For more information:
Maria Paola Vercesi
RCS Sport Cycling Press Office
+39 393 9054802

Matteo Cavazzuti
c/o Acciari Consulting Milano
+39 393 9662451

Email: press.giroditalia@rcssport.it
Web: www.pressroom.rcssport.it
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