Offshore racing
Vendée Globe 2016-2017 : a hugely popular event and media success
mercredi 22 mars 2017 –
Toutes les versions de cet article : [English] [français]
The results of the 2016-2017 Vendée Globe show huge increases everywhere : many more people attending the event, unprecedented media coverage and feedback, a record level of international coverage without talking about the very positive race outcome in terms of the rankings. With 29 skippers lining up, 18 were ranked, which is a record number in the history of the Vendée Globe.
II – Exceptional media coverage
Whether we are looking at television, press, internet or social media, the media coverage of the Vendée Globe has increased dramatically and the total audience is much higher than for the previous edition. These results are largely thanks to a communication strategy based on video use, live broadcasts, the use of digital tools and social media. Here are the key figures :
1) A Vendée Globe with unprecedented coverage
An increase of 20% in comparison to 2012 if we look at French indicators. The coverage was valued to represent 7404 media units or a rise of more than 20% in comparison with the 2012 race. This would indicate that each French person was reached by the Vendée Globe 74 times on the various media throughout the race.
MEDIA : 45,000 reports, articles and messages linked to the Vendée Globe were recorded, shared out by the media in the following way : TV 36%, print media 22%, Web 19%, social media 15%, radio 8%.
– 2180 accredited journalists on the Vendée Globe media server
– 1676 journalists present in les Sables d’Olonne for the start and finish.
– 645,000 pages viewed on the press photo server, as opposed to 491,000 in 2013
– 31,600 photos were downloaded by the media, 30% more than in 2013.
2) An explosion of TV coverage
– TELEVISION : 1236 hours of coverage (compared to 738 hours in 2012)
With more than 1200 hours of TV coverage on 97 channels in 190 countries and on five continents, the TV coverage for the 2016-2017 Vendée Globe has increased dramatically in comparison to 2012-2013. Among the major figures, we can note a big increase in the number of channels – an increase of 50% (65 in 2012) and almost 500 extra hours of coverage in comparison to the last race (738 hours in 2012).
631 hours of broadcasting outside of France
The media enthusiasm for the Vendée Globe can be explained by the increase in the number of foreign countries represented by the skippers (10 in this race).
This coverage can be divided up as follows : 365.5 hours in Europe excluding France (as opposed to 147, or +148%), 83.5 hours in Africa and the Middle East as opposed to 47, or +77%), 11 hours in North America (as opposed to 8, or + 37%), 23 hours in South America (as opposed to 63, or -64%), 82.5 hours in Asia (as opposed to 127 or -35%), 18.5 hours in Australasia (as opposed to 8, or +131%), 47 hours on global channels (as opposed to 48, or -2%)
The live coverage of the start reflected this international dimension of the Vendée Globe with 33 TV channels (as opposed to 18 in 2012), which broadcast a total of almost 120 hours (as opposed to 32 hours).
FTA channels covered the event on their news not only to follow the progress of the skippers (and more particularly the channels in the country of origin of the skippers), but also to pick up some spectacular images such as the two leaders passing the Kerguelens. Among the most prestigious channels, we can mention CCTV (China), TV Asahi (Japan), CNN International (USA), BBC News (UK), RTVE (Spain) and SRG (Switzerland).
In France, there were 605 hours of television broadcast about the Vendée Globe.
Vendée LIVE
The dual French coverage on Infosport+ and BFM Sport alone generated 84 hours of television.
3) Huge increase in coverage on social media
– SOCIAL MEDIA : 264,000 fans (+350 %)
The fan base for the Vendée Globe grew considerably in this edition with 264,000 fans on Facebook (+350% since 4 years ago), almost 54,000 followers on Twitter (+280%) and more than 23,800 subscribers on Instagram (account created for this edition). For the first time, the number of videos viewed on Facebook (41 million) overtook the number of videos viewed on the websites via the Dailymotion (24.7 million) and Youtube (4.6 million) platforms.
– LIVE : 13 million views
The three daily live shows on the race website and Dailymotion exceeded 6.5 million views in all (live and replay). In addition to this number, we should add in views on Facebook : 6.4 million views. Or a total of almost 13 million views (excl. TV coverage).
> VIDEO : 71 million videos
Video is the favoured means of communication for the Vendée Globe and skippers. As proof of that, 71 million videos (+140 % in comparison to 2012) were viewed during the race, including 42 million on Facebook, 25 million on Dailymotion and almost 5 million on Youtube…
4) High vistor numbers on Internet with games like Virtual Regatta
– WEBSITE and APP : 345 million pages viewed
The numbers for the official website remain impressive with almost ten million single visitors, 87 million visits and 260 million pages viewed during the race. With the mobile app (downloaded 242,000 times), the total for the website and App (smartphones + tablets) comes to 345 million pages viewed.
– VIRTUAL GAME : 456,712 players
The Virtual Vendée Globe was raced by 456,712 players, including 231,000 who completed the race. 1600 primary school and secondary school classes took part, involving almost 40,000 children. 96 French departments took part in the virtual race with Loire Atlantique, Paris and Vendée being the most represented. It was the club ‘Les Sports Nautiques Sablais’ with 193 registered that was the club with the highest number of entrants.