UcanUwill wrote:maverick4178 wrote:AdagioPace wrote:Really? I thought it was broadcasted on ZDF (2nd german channel)
I watched the game on swedish 1st channel (with a VPN) because the italian public TV didn't buy the rights.
how can ski jumping be 2nd most popular sport in germany is beyond my comprehension
The final was broadcasted on ZDF. A last minute decision by the network.
The rest of the games were not on network TV.
For a long time it has been Ski Jumping or Biathlon as second most popular.
Why? Because Germany has been rather successful in both and as a winter sport they clash only a little bit with football. And during the football season no other sport exists in the media.
I am a big ice hockey fan and that team also had some decent results the last few years and some extremely good players in the NHL. But hardly anyone knows about that.
Handball is usually regarded as the second most popular team sport, and even they had trouble to get media coverage of their last few tournaments.
There is really no point in discussing if any particular sport is the 5th most popular or 15th most popular, since the niche sports start with the second most popular sport, as football still rules all, not matter how bad they are right now.
Do you think it will shift now when country is good at it, I mean basketball? In Lithuania, one of the most popular random sports, that I see is on tv all the time, is Strongmen competition. YOu know what I am talking about? BEcause we were very good at it, randomly just like basketball. Good to love men here, most of them are over 6'2, they flip 200kg tires for a living, or dunking a basketball, and then there is me...
I don't think so. I usually don't like ranking team sports and individual sports in the same lists.
And one of the reasons for that is, that team sports have a much harder time to compete wiht almighty football. Most individual sports have that one event maybe two per year where they become relevant in Germany and get some media coverage and they can improve their popularity dramatically if they do well in these competitions. But for team sports one World Cup or European Championship does very little. It usually attracts a few casual fans that will tune in again next year, but the leagues still remain in obscurity.
For real popularity you need both actual fans and the casual fans, because without casual fans there is no media coverage there are no bigger sponsoring deals with big brands and therefore there is no additional money.
Sure, for a short time there will be a little boost based on this gold medal, just like there was in ice hockey after they won Silver in the Olympics. But these two sports in particular have one huge problem. None of our best players play at home. The top players are in the NBA and NHL respectively, and I love Andi Obst, Jo Voigtmann, Jo Thiemann, Maodo Lo and all the others, but you would need guys like Wagner, Schröder or Theis here, and if not in Germany at least somewhere nearby in Europe. That could generate a little more interest in the mainstream, but you are not going to get casual fans to get up at 1am to watch the Orlando Magic.
Tldr: I would be very surprised if any boost in popularity lasts longer than a month or two.