Media coverage of Table Tennis

There are many sports struggling with this meaning that they have only "educated" spectators and the rest of the population says "Wau this is interesting let's watch one hour" only if it gets broadcasted once per 4 years during OG but they would never watch it regularly. It's not the best comparison but once someone mentioned archery in another thread I know little bit about such discussions in fencing where FIA tries to desperately invent some new rules (e.g. like having doubles in fencing, rectangle field instead of long stripe or mandate "opened" masks with plexi so you can see athlete's eyes) but they are either so crazy that the game would be ruined as it is known for last 100 years (and therefore rejected by normal involved people who love it and not only potential money from more broadcasts) or they are not enough. In the end unless you know the thing very well or you have very good comments and all the slow motion replays and electronic pens showing how fast and difficult some moves were you cannot watch it and even with that only real TV sport fanatics are usually in the mood to swallow such show for more then 10 minutes.

Therefore I'm afraid that without crazy things like the deciding game being wrestling or kick-box instead of TT it will be harder and harder to fight popularity of all established big sports and all the "new" which are having specific regional popularity and all the attributes to be exported to the rest of the world and catch an eye of general (more or less dumb) population easier then TT...

I think table tennis can't be focused on as an international sport
It should be a "club" sport, like NBA club teams, football club teams etc

Currently there is some success of club teams in the likes of Germany, France, India, China, Japan, Singapore (T2) etc
ITTF should just focus on WTTC/OG/WC and assist with each national federation to setup professional leagues, or to assist the pro leagues in increase its market value.

For example FIBA didn't make basketball big, and i'm sure in the same context FIFA didn't do as much as the clubs did to make it big.

India and Singapore did very well in 2017 imo

so if club sport can get supporters/followers, maybe audience will increase.
China's fan base obviously follows players more than club, but you would still have your loyal locals supporting the home base team

With audience, there is value, when there is value - there will be money, when there is money, then you have something worth pursuing

Grahamfbatts said:

Thanks for all the comments so far. Very interesting to read all of them. Clearly the UK is not alone in having almost no TV coverage of TT. And I'm not surprised to learn that there is plenty in China. How about Germany, France, Belgium or any other countries where you have professional TT leagues? And how about the national press? Is table tennis absent from newspapers around the world. Or perhaps the newspapers themselves have disappeared?

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In Germany TT on TV has become much less compared to the eighties when i started playing and getting interested.
Before they showed like a 5 to 10 minute recap of Bundesliga matches on national free tv or had guys like Guo YueHua or Jan Ove Waldner on one of the biggest German sport shows as a special guest.
Nowadays you have to be lucky to not miss a 2 minute snippet, sometimes even less and only on regional sports shows.
However on major events like OG, WTTC or WC TV stations like ZDF or Eurosport (free tv) broadcasts selected matches or some highlights.
Eurosport2 (pay tv) shows a bit more, but not much.

But many TT fans aren't satisfied with this situation, 'cause National TV stations buy and then own the rights to broadcast matches, but just don't broadcast it. (Almost as if they wanted to keep TT small)
Few (probably too little) TT fans keep sending their complaints to the National TV stations, but nothing happens nothing changes...

Grahamfbatts said:

That's very interesting Suga D. Why would the national TV stations want to keep TT small? Surely, if they know that TT has a lot of spectators they would want to show the sport? In England, I feel that the lack national media attention is because the sport has failed to attract spectators. And the root cause of that is because since the mid 1970s the best players in England have only been able to play professionally by going outside England.

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Same thing in china
otherwise, why did the super league get pressure to make the matches finish quicker:
1) best of 3 in doubles and final game
2) decider first to 7
3) no more picking up balls
The chances was to aid in not having long matches - I guess this is with T20 cricket is now the main financial driver in cricket - short, exciting and "pro teams"

TV still has high demand for sports, TT is not the only one pursing it, so competition is fierce
I know TV shows and movies won't be on live TV (mod or vod etc), but sports will always have a market on live TV

darucla said:

That was possibly the last TT-only major event held in England. Until this February.

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You clearly don't know much TT History. Since 1954 the following majors, all TT-only, have been played in the UK - and I'm not including the English Open, which until the mid-1970s was probably the most prestigious event outside the World and European Championships:

1966 European Championships (Wembley)
1977 World Championships (Teams and Individual) (NEC)
1983 European Top 12 (Cleveland)
1994 European Championships (Birmingham)
1997 World Championships (Teams and Individual) (Manchester G-Mex)

The '77 Worlds got a lot of coverage on UK terrestrial TV, after which TT's status in the UK media (TV and newspapers) declined steadily, so that by 1997 there was no coverage of eg Waldner's amazing run at the Worlds. Pre-internet, in the 80s and 90s it was almost impossible to find results and coverage of TT majors in UK newspapers except for specialist publications like TTNews.

OK, clearly I should have said in London, referencing this item:

https://tabletennisengland.co.uk/news/archived/extra-tickets-available-for-team-world-cup-finals/

But even that appears to be wrong?

Grahamfbatts said:

That's very interesting Suga D. Why would the national TV stations want to keep TT small? Surely, if they know that TT has a lot of spectators they would want to show the sport? In England, I feel that the lack national media attention is because the sport has failed to attract spectators. And the root cause of that is because since the mid 1970s the best players in England have only been able to play professionally by going outside England.

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You're probably right and might have a very good point.
Conspiracy theories are always an easy excuse for complex situations.
Haha.
[Emoji2]
But... (with a capital B)
1. what do the TV stations buy the rights for when they don't plan to broadcast it anyways?
2. Sky sports must have done something right. I don't think sandpaper pingpong creates a bigger buzz and far more attention than tabletennis ever has in the last years by itself. Somebody must have done an excellent promotion job.
3. Also there was little to no media attention for Timo's victory over Ma Long or Dima winning the wordcup and reaching WRL #1.

Why is that?

How about the upcoming 2018 Team World Cup in London? Will it be live broadcasted in UK TV channels? How about news coverage on traditional media and social media for now?

As I mentioned, in 2017 TT events were second most viewed sports on CCTV5, the top one sports channel in China. I should be more specific, it refers to weighted viewership rating (live and replays), not total broadcasting hours. In 2017, CCTV5 spent 23% of broadcasting hours on soccer; only 4% on TT (live and replays), ranked #8 among all sports, after boxing, snooker and tennis (all 5%). On the other hand, the average viewership rating of TT is 0.34%, ranked #1 among all sports (the average viewership of CCTV5 channel is 0.2%, soccer 0.15%, boxing 0.14%, snooker 0.25%). What these numbers tell is that TT events do attract more viewers of CCTV5 in the limited broadcasting time compared to other sports.
CCTV5 also tends to replay some highly watched events like the semifinal and final of 2016 OG, final of 2017 WTTC instead of live broadcasting CTTSL. First reason is that it is easy to manage the duration of replays and fit in a certain time block. A 7-game singles match is still shorter than a team match. Second reason is that CCTV5 doesn't bother to send broadcasting devices to some remote CTTSL stadiums. Chinese national leagues, no matter being TT, soccer, basketball, volleyball, generally have lower viewership than internatioanl tournaments that Team China or Chinese players played. It is not cost effective for CCTV5 to broadcast a lot of CTTSL events.

rainneverever said:

How about the upcoming 2018 Team World Cup in London? Will it be live broadcasted in UK TV channels? How about news coverage on traditional media and social media for now?

As I mentioned, in 2017 TT events were second most viewed sports on CCTV5, the top one sports channel in China. I should be more specific, it refers to weighted viewership rating (live and replays), not total broadcasting hours. In 2017, CCTV5 spent 23% of broadcasting hours on soccer; only 4% on TT (live and replays), ranked #8 among all sports, after boxing, snooker and tennis (all 5%). On the other hand, the average viewership rating of TT is 0.34%, ranked #1 among all sports (the average viewership of CCTV5 channel is 0.2%, soccer 0.15%, boxing 0.14%, snooker 0.25%). What these numbers tell is that TT events do attract more viewers of CCTV5 in the limited broadcasting time compared to other sports.
CCTV5 also tends to replay some highly watched events like the semifinal and final of 2016 OG, final of 2017 WTTC instead of live broadcasting CTTSL. First reason is that it is easy to manage the duration of replays and fit in a certain time block. A 7-game singles match is still shorter than a team match. Second reason is that CCTV5 doesn't bother to send broadcasting devices to some remote CTTSL stadiums. Chinese national leagues, no matter being TT, soccer, basketball, volleyball, generally have lower viewership than internatioanl tournaments that Team China or Chinese players played. It is not cost effective for CCTV5 to broadcast a lot of CTTSL events.

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That sounds like TT-heaven
[Emoji15]

rarely. only when the national team wins something or when a national club goes to champions league

rainneverever said:

How about the upcoming 2018 Team World Cup in London? Will it be live broadcasted in UK TV channels? How about news coverage on traditional media and social media for now?

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/table-tennis/41029034

The announcement of the tournament at least made the BBC website. I don't know whether it was on the TV news as well. I barely watch live broadcast TV these days.

I attended a TTE meeting last month, in which TV broadcasting of the event was vaguely mentioned (the meeting focused on resources for local clubs), but I could not say who would be the broadcaster, or whether it will be live. I had the impression that the details had not been finalised. I would be surprised if it were to be shown on any of the major broadcast channels.

Quote from Sara Sutcliffe of TTE:- "It is expected to reach a global audience of 500 million households so this is a great example of us being able to host an event in a sport which may not yet have the exposure it deserves at home but which is huge around the world". From Insidethegames.biz

darucla said:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/table-tennis/41029034

The announcement of the tournament at least made the BBC website. I don't know whether it was on the TV news as well. I barely watch live broadcast TV these days.

I attended a TTE meeting last month, in which TV broadcasting of the event was vaguely mentioned (the meeting focused on resources for local clubs), but I could not say who would be the broadcaster, or whether it will be live. I had the impression that the details had not been finalised. I would be surprised if it were to be shown on any of the major broadcast channels.

Quote from Sara Sutcliffe of TTE:- "It is expected to reach a global audience of 500 million households so this is a great example of us being able to host an event in a sport which may not yet have the exposure it deserves at home but which is huge around the world". From Insidethegames.biz

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What evidence can Sara Sutcliffe of TTE provide that watching table tennis is "huge around the world"? It is not "huge" in the United States, a country of roughly 330 million people. Nor is competitive table tennis "huge" in Canada, Mexico, Central America and South America. And what preparations in terms of publicity, sponsors, marketing and polling a sample that could even remotely be representative of 500 million households can TTE claim to have made for the upcoming 2018 World Cup to be played at the Copper Box Arena at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in February?

I suspect that Ms. Sutcliffe and for that matter TTE (whoever they are) are not terribly well acquainted with the problems to be overcome, if indeed they can be overcome, in presenting world class table tennis that could be expected to reach, in her words, "a global audience of 500 million households".

Happily looking forward to the Team World Cup, hope it is a great success!!

According to ITTF, 2017 WTTC reached 355.6 million and 2016 OG reached 552.3 million globally. 500 million households for Team World Cup? That's mission impossible...
https://www.ittf.com/2017/07/19/liebherr-2017-world-championships-social-viewership-records-broken/
https://www.ittf.com/2017/01/04/tel...-upon-millions-watched-table-tennis-rio-2016/

rainneverever said:

According to ITTF, 2017 WTTC reached 355.6 million and 2016 OG reached 552.3 million globally. 500 million households for Team World Cup? That's mission impossible...
https://www.ittf.com/2017/07/19/liebherr-2017-world-championships-social-viewership-records-broken/
https://www.ittf.com/2017/01/04/tel...-upon-millions-watched-table-tennis-rio-2016/

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That's probably where the estimate came from, and WTTC is the same audience for this, maybe smaller but not by much.

rainneverever said:

According to ITTF, 2017 WTTC reached 355.6 million and 2016 OG reached 552.3 million globally. 500 million households for Team World Cup? That's mission impossible...
https://www.ittf.com/2017/07/19/liebherr-2017-world-championships-social-viewership-records-broken/
https://www.ittf.com/2017/01/04/tel...-upon-millions-watched-table-tennis-rio-2016/

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(pasted from The Sports Digest.com)

A total of 552.3 million viewers were recorded as having watched table tennis events at last year’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, research has claimed.

Figures were produced by independent research organization Iris, who had been commissioned to conduct the study by the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF).

The figures were based on watching the sport for a minimum of five consecutive minutes, with Asia unsurprisingly dominating the figures for table tennis.

China predictably were the highest overall viewers, with their viewership found to have reached 372 million people.

Their men’s team semi-final contest with South Korea was found to have attracted 13.3 million unique visitors in the country.

The Chinese team ultimately emerged as the dominant force at Rio 2016, claiming all four gold medals on offer for the third consecutive Olympic Games.

Their overall viewership eclipsed the second highest ranked nation, with 27.8 million viewers having been found to have tuned in from Japan.

In total, the viewership from Asia reached 433.1 million.

The United States were the third highest ranked nation with 27.8 million viewers, with the host nation Brazil not far behind on 23,100,000.

Viewership in Europe was recorded at 67 million, with coverage in Oceania watched by 4.1 million people during the Games.

Despite Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna becoming the first African player ever to reach the a singles quarter-finals at the Olympic Games, the continent’s overall viewership was just 100,000.

The ITTF believe the figures display that the sport is athletic, dynamic and dramatic, as well as being easy to follow.

In total 471 hours of coverage was broadcast of table tennis at the Games, with 13.5 percent of international viewers having been found to have watched a significant amount of table tennis.

By Michael Pavitt

According to the figures compiled by the research organization Iris, viewership from Asia accounted for 433.1 million of the 552.3 million global table tennis viewers, China having 372 million viewers, Japan 27.8 million, and the South Korea semifinal against China drawing 13.3 million "unique visitors in that country" (whatever that means).

I find it difficult to believe that 27.8 million American viewers watched table tennis at the 2016 Olympic Games, as there are possibly maybe 50,000 players who have played or who do play and understand to some extent world class competitive table tennis and I would be interested to know as to what methodology Iris used to come to its conclusion.

I cannot recall if I watched Rio OG on NBC or CCTV5. Don't forget the population of Chinese American and Chinese who work or study in the States. OG are not only for TT fans and sports fans. The viewership of WTTC in the States may be more relevant.