Liebherr TTBL 2020 Bundesliga final was historical event not only because of the specific conditions but also because of media coverage. The German Team Championship and the play-offs were shown live on free TV on the stream and in numerous TV summaries; the broadcasts reached millions of viewers.
Fans had to wait a long time for the table tennis Bundesliga (TTBL) live on German free TV. This year the time had come: When the 1. FC Saarbrücken TT won 3-1 against the TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen in the Liebherr TTBL final on June 14 2020 and won the first championship in club history the spectators were able to watch the action and follow the Saarland title celebration live on Free TV at Eurosport 1. The station had previously shown the play-off matches between 1. FC Saarbrücken TT and SV Werder Bremen and between Borussia Düsseldorf and TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen. This was made possible by a sublicense from the rights holder DOSB New Media the operator of Sportdeutschland.TV.
The broadcast ratings have now been published: a total of just under 600 000 viewers watched the three matches live on Eurosport 1 with more than 120 000 viewers watching at the same time. In addition both at play-offs and at the Liebherr TTBL finals there are viewers in the live stream of Sportdeutschland.TV which was followed by more than 25 000 fans.
In addition to the live broadcasts the TTBL also achieved new record ranges in the summaries of the games. The ARD sports show saw an average of more than 1.5 million viewers during which an almost eight-minute contribution to the Liebherr TTBL final was broadcasted. Further summaries on finals and play-offs were broadcast on SWR and Radio Bremen and Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR) also broadcast a 30-minute contribution to the Liebherr TTBL finale. The ZDF reported in sports reports with an average of more than 1.5 million viewers Morgenmagazin with an average of just under 0.5 million viewers and various high-reach news programs recycling the Liebherr TTBL finals and the play-offs. Among others more than 5 million viewers saw the today journal which included a report on the final of the German team championship. The various reports are still available in the media libraries of the public TV channels. As part of the rolling news Sky Sport News HD also reported from the Liebherr TTBL final and reached around 1 million viewers.
“We are very happy about the great response and the unprecedented range ” says Nico STEHLE Managing Director of Tischtennis Bundesliga GmbH. “We not only succeeded in choosing the first German champion in Corona times but also brought the table tennis Bundesliga into the media focus and back into German live television. We showed that table tennis is a very attractive format for television. ”
