Since 2001, tennis has slowly increased in popularity to now become Europe’s second most preferred sport on TV. These results are taken from the latest ‘European Sport Sponsoring 2002’ study by SPORT+MARKT AG, conducted in Germany, England, France, Italy and Spain.

Last year tennis was being held back from second spot by Formula 1, but this year there has been a distinct decline of interest in the motor sport within all five investigated countries, just enough for tennis to steal the second spot.

With almost triple as many votes, football is by far Europe’s most loved sport on TV. Despite this large popularity gap between the two sports however, football and tennis were the only two sports that managed to enthuse high numbers of people within all five investigated markets. Other sports that tended to have unusually high popularity values in a certain country were distinguished by the performance of immensely popular national stars or with sports that tended to have exclusive traditional elements, for example the attraction of rugby in England and France but complete lack of interest in all the other markets.

The popularity of tennis and football in all the key countries investigated, reflects a largely unanimous European sporting potential.

For further information please contact:

SPORT+MARKT AG
T: +49-221-430-73-162
E: Uwe.Welzel@sportundmarkt.de
W: www.sportundmarkt.com