National Cyclocross Champs livestream viewer figures revealed | Sticky Bottle

*Des Woods after his Masters 50 race at the National Cyclocross Championships in Co Sligo last month. TG4 is broadcasting a one-hour highlights package on Saturday week (Photo: Bryan Keane - Inpho)*

Cycling Ireland has revealed the viewership figures for the live streaming of last month’s National Cyclocross Championships in Enniscrone, Co Sligo.

In a
new departure, the championships were live streamed on Facebook, with broadcast
partner TG4 putting on a very solid show in terms of production values.

There
was also commentary, albeit in Irish, and post race interviews for some riders,
making for a tidy broadcast package.

Cycling
Ireland has said the live stream generate some 78,000 views on Facebook
combining for a total of 1,600 hours of viewing.

The live stream figure of 78,000 views mean Facebook users started to watch the broadcast some 78,000 times, and stayed watching for varying amounts of time.

*Grace Young looked like she'd left it all out on the course after her championship ride (Photo: Bryan Keane - Inpho)*

“The live streaming was a huge success with
78,000 views and 1,600 hours of content watched on the Cycling Ireland Facebook
platform,” said Cycling Ireland marketing and communications manager,
Scott Graham.

“The broadcast allowed us to showcase this
fantastic discipline of cycling to both existing fans and to open up the sport
to a much wider audience.

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“We have proven there is a huge appetite for
this type of high-quality content and new opportunities for sponsors looking to
support our work in growing and developing cycling in all its forms.”

In what
was a great weekend of championship racing promoted by Ballina CC, Maria Larkin
claimed the elite women’s title and David Conroy retain the elite men’s crown.

Darren
Rafferty claimed the junior men’s championship race while Lucy O’Donnell was
leading female junior as she claimed bronze in the elite event.

As the
TG4 cameras and production crew were in place, the footage is now being edited
into a one-hour highlights programme for broadcast on the Irish TV channel.

That
show will be broadcast from 4.55pm on Saturday week, February 15^th.
It will include the commentary and interviews by Pádraic Quinn and Sean
Ó Tuathail.

Cycling Ireland said
the highlights has been “given priority within TG4 scheduling” to ensure there
are no major sporting clashes in a bid to maximise viewership figures.

Further broadcast
dates will be scheduled by TG4 over the coming weeks and we will keep you posted
on those.