Barcelona, Thursday 12th, 2007. The 2007 ULEB Cup Final was not only a smashing success on the court for Real Madrid, but also broke records in attracting a worldwide audience. For the fourth consecutive year the ULEB Cup Final was played in Charleroi, Belgium between Madrid and Lietuvos Rytas on Tuesday, April 10. And for the fourth consecutive year, the Spiroudome was sold out, with an attendance of 5,800, as fans from Spain and Lithuania were joined by Belgian supporters of Axel Hervelle, their own national team’s hero.
 
The event enjoyed its widest media exposure ever, both on TV and in print. A record 170 journalists were accredited in Charleroi, while Eurosport 2 broadcasted the game live in 9 languages to 43 countries and a potential audience of 23.5 million homes, more evidence of the interest generated by the ULEB Cup in just its fifth season. The final was seen in such countries as Australia, Myanmar, Maldives, Indonesia, Philippines and Hong Kong through Eurosport 2, whose commentators announced the game in English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Polish, Romanian, Greek and Turk. The success of its title-game broadcast was in addition to Eurosport 2’s expansive ULEB Cup coverage all season this network during the whole season.

In Spain, the home of new champion Real Madrid, the national channel La Sexta combined its interest in the best international basketball with its strong grasp of new technologies and multimedia experiences. Besides offering the final on national TV in Spain, La Sexta also made its first broadcast of a complete basketball game for mobile devices. La Sexta was rewarded for its efforts with a sizable audience, more than a million spectators during the game, with an average of 768,000, which comes to a 7.1% share of the people watching TV in Spain. The pre-game show was followed by 225,000 spectators (a 2.8% share) and the post-game coverage with interviews by 386,000 (a 2.4% share). La Sexta’s broadcast hit its peak share to 20.4%, when 1,159,000 spectators were watching the final.

NBATV also aired the game in USA, Canada, Puerto Rico and Caribbean, while Al Jazeera showed the thrills of the event to Africa and Middle East. All together, the TV coverage of the ULEB Cup Final marked a new high, reaching 71 countries and territories on all five continents, breaking the previous record of 67 countries that the 2007 title game reached.