Loew's Lads are Must-See TV
Where in Germany can you find the largest gathering of people with an intense dislike of the German national squad?
No, besides a tavern call for British expats living in Berlin or Munich.
The answer is–executive advertising meetings held by German television networks that don’t have the domestic broadcast rights for German national team matches.
Huh?
For a nation in which football was already a popular televised event, the current version of Die Mannschaft has been old school, pre-DVR, must-see TV and their televised matches are destroying ratings for alternate programming.
Against Kazakhstan, a nation ranked lower than Vietnam in FIFA’s current ratings, Tuesday’s Euro 2012 qualifer earned a 39% share of the German television audience. Prior to that, the Turkey match Friday night earned a 47% share.
In raw numbers, that’s a reported 12 million viewers for the Kazakh match and 15 million for the Turkish Delight. Again, these appear to be reported numbers for German television only.
Possible reasons for such high ratings on the qualifers? The article cites the team’s “fast dynamic play” as a “welcome change to the stodgy, defensive German squads of years past. And the fresh, multi-ethnic faces on the pitch.”
And here I was thinking it was because Germany has such a fashion-forward manager.
Oh, and while German televisions are tuned in to watch Jogi’s boys, they were not tuned into 30 Rock. Who knew Germans hated Tina Fey?
I knew the Germans hated Tina Fey. After all, Germans have no sense of humor.
We do have a sense of humor, Pupsters. We use it as a prophylactic.
Should be noted that the German national team matches are all on public television (the local equivalent to the BBC). That explains the high ratings to some effect.
@ CJ: Correct, we’re talking about ZDF, but what is unique here is that it appears Germans are watching Die Mannschaft in even greater numbers than before.