Watching the Games

Synovate has released the results of a global study into viewing of and attitudes to the Olympic Games. 82% claim to have followed the Games, with US respondents, despite their country topping the medals table, least likely (73%) and Germany second bottom with 78%.

The survey covered more than 5,000 respondents from Brazil, China, Germany, Greece, South Africa, South Korea, Russia and the US and asked how they followed the competition and which were their favourite events.

Synovate's Head of Global Omnibus, Tom Mularz, said that - as anticipated - the study found that the majority of respondents in all nations followed the events in Athens via television. 'The only other significant channel used was in uber-wired South Korea and China, where 15% and 8% of respondents respectively experienced the Games via the Internet. Newspaper coverage was also cited by these nations, specifically by 11% of South Koreans and 12% of Chinese'.

'It's quite likely that time zones were behind Asian audiences' preference for non-TV coverage - most Athens events occurred in the early hours of the morning', Mr Mularz said.

Some viewers are passionate about their Olympics-watching - 25% of respondents who watched at all agreed with the statement that 'Nothing gets between me and the television when the Olympic Games are on' - rising to 45% in China, 49% in Russia and 50% in South Korea, and falling to only 10% in the US. However, watching is as far as many people ever want to go - only 40% of the survey's participants agreed they had dreamed of being an Olympic athlete themselves.

On the negative side, 23% of all respondents agreed that they had been put off by recent drug scandals - rising to 48% among the Greeks, who of course witnessed two of their national heroes coming under investigation. Meanwhile, almost half of all respondents felt that the original Olympic spirit had been lost to corporate advertising and marketing interests - including 85% of Greeks. South Koreans and Chinese were the most optimistic here, with only 33% and 35% respectively believing the Games had sold out. 'This bodes well for Beijing 2008' says Mularz.

Overall 23% of respondents chose an aquatic event as their favourite, including swimming, diving, synchronised swimming and water polo. South Africans were the biggest advocates of these sports (34%). Olympic football, despite the sport's massive global following, is only fourth in the rankings with 10% choosing it - this is heavily concentrated in a few nations such as Korea (where 54% chose football). Only 19% of Brazilians chose it, whereas 34% favoured Volleyball, another sport in which the country excels. At the bottom end of the overall (global) popularity scale came Modern Pentathlon, Hockey, Triathlon and Taekwondo.

Perhaps surprisingly, US Olympic fans chose gymnastics as their favourite sport (38%). As Mr Mularz commented: 'This could well be because Gymnastics transcends regular sporting culture and appeals to viewers of both genders'. Only 12% of Americans selected track & field and only 4% basketball.

Synovate surveyed 5,159 qualified individuals via its Global Omnibus, which cover the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, providing access to telephone, Internet and face-to-face methodologies in 53 countries worldwide. The company's web site is at www.synovate.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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