Upsurge in women’s Nordic Combined and Ski Jumping viewership headlines annual media evaluation report

The TV Media Evaluation of the FIS World Cup 2024-25 season shows encouraging audience growth in several disciplines, and consistent numbers across others.

Among the highlights of the study carried out by Nielsen Sports were significant increases in viewers of women’s Nordic Combined (+25%) and women’s Ski Jumping (+19%). The total audience for Nordic Combined also grew despite there being fewer events (+14%).

Park & Pipe continues to be a big hit with Chinese audiences. With close to 80% of total ‘event impressions’ - a measurement that includes repeat viewers - China contributed to record numbers for Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski, even outperforming the 2021-22 Olympic season. China also accounts for 91% of Aerials World Cup event impressions.

In general, Snowboard is on an upward curve with Snowboard Alpine (+63%) and Snowboard Cross (+34%) both showing considerable year-on-year increases in event impressions per race.

Cross-Country also experienced a year of consolidation, including positive trends for the 'DACH' nations with increases in event impressions for Germany (+2%), Austria (+25%), and Switzerland (+6%).

"In a few key countries, audience numbers are slightly declining partly due to a lack of local athlete success. This is normal, as in the case of Slovakia and Alpine Skiing with Petra Vlhova missing the entire season through injury. On the flip side, the response to athletes excelling - like Italy and Federica Brignone - resulted in overall stability for the discipline."

The full list of media evaulation reports for the FIS World Cup 2024-25 season, broken down by disciplines, is available here.