Numerous records at Liebherr Cup final: TTBL reaches audience of millions
New records on all channels: The Liebherr Cup Final was a complete success for the organizing Table Tennis Bundesliga (TTBL), setting new records both for live broadcasts on Spontent's channels on Twitch and the post-match reports on TV, as well as for social media reach.
Nearly eight hours of live table tennis had awaited fans at the German Table Tennis Cup Final Four on January 8. For the first time, the event was broadcast live on Spontent's channels on Twitch - and this offer was enthusiastically received. The Liebherr Cup Final achieved almost 70,000 views and thus set a new record for the livestream. There was also a new record in the ratiopharm arena Ulm/Neu-Ulm: 5,000 fans poured into the arena, clearly breaking the previous record. All tickets had already been sold out a few days before the event.
The Table Tennis Bundesliga (TTBL), which organized the event, also achieved high coverage with its post-event reports on various channels. For example, ARD's "Sportschau" and ZDF's "Sportstudio-Reportage" both reported on the Final Four in five-minute segments. Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR) showed a quarter-hour special broadcast from the event; SWR reported on TTC Neu-Ulm's first Cup victory in its news formats. An approximately 45-minute summary of the Final Four was shown on SPORT1. In total, more than 4.5 million viewers tuned in to these formats, thus also helping the Liebherr Cup Final to record ratings. In addition, there were the various on-demand formats in the media libraries and on the Spontent and TTBL channels.
More than 5 million users reached on social media
"Thanks to everyone who tuned in or visited us at the ratiopharm arena," says Nico Stehle, Managing Director of Tischtennis Bundesliga GmbH. "On the one hand, the numbers show that we offer an attractive format with our events and our sport, which works very well both on TV and live on site. On the other hand, they show that we have forged a strong and reliable partnership with Dyn Media and Spontent, which is also very well received by the fans and still offers a lot of potential for the future."
The great public interest in the Final Four was also reflected on social media. More than 300 posts were made about the event, reaching a total of more than 5 million users and generating more than 160,000 interactions. This again demonstrated the success of the TTBL strategy on TikTok: Only launched in November, the TTBL channel is already followed by more than 60,000 fans; with the posts on the Final Four, more than 4 million users were reached and around 125,000 interactions were achieved. "Our sport is also highly attractive to a young audience, which is evident from our success on social media," says Nico Stehle. "As part of our strategy, we want to create a holistic table tennis experience and link the different channels in the best possible way."