TV balance sheet of the European Football Championship: Schweinsteiger problematic case

Almuth Schult's laughing fit is one of the most beautiful television moments of the European Football Championship.

The national soccer player, who is engaged as an expert by ARD, started to snort again and again after her colleague Kevin-Prince Boateng said: "He's been in the game for so long ..." The laughing Schult even had to pass the next question: " I'm out."

Schult delighted the TV audience with her naturalness and humor.

But also with their analyzes, which were much more accurate and relentless than with Bastian Schweinsteiger, who is also under contract with the first and caused the broadcaster to worry for other reasons during the course of the tournament.

What does an expert have to bring along for a successful television appearance?

"I think authenticity, that you take the person seriously, whatever they are, that you feel good when you listen to them, that they are eloquent and that they have knowledge, take the viewers with them and inform them." the German press agency said before the tournament - and according to the audience and professional TV critics, the 30-year-old fully met these requirements in the following weeks.

"She is totally brave and clear"

Schult received consistently good ratings.

"There was absolutely no negative feedback," said ARD EM team boss Steffen Simon.

“We were pleasantly surprised.” Those responsible for the public broadcaster feared that there could also have been hostility and insults on the Internet, as with the ZDF commentator Claudia Neumann.

“That has a lot to do with their naturalness,” said the ARD team boss and praised the appearance of the 30-year-olds: “Their tactical explanations are sensational.

She is totally courageous and clear. ”The goalkeeper, who has made 91 appearances for the national team and is under contract with Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg, made good use of her experience.

Schult has also gained notoriety through her appearances, as she reported to the Sportbuzzer portal: “Once a taxi driver rolled down the window and shouted:“ You're off the television, cool, you're doing a good job! ”“ On the other hand: “In nothing has changed in the village where I live.

That's the most important thing anyway, ”said Schult, who lives with her husband and children in Wendland in Lower Saxony.

While the national goalkeeper, who is also part of the “Football can do more” initiative, gave ARD a lot of pleasure during the European Championship, Schweinsteiger became a problem.

That had nothing to do with the criticism of his joint appearances with Jessy Wellmer, but with the surreptitious advertising affair.

The case has still not been finally resolved and is to be "processed internally" in the coming weeks, as the ARD says.

An appearance by Schweinsteiger had caused anger at the station because he had advertised a watch at the same time.

The expert, who is under contract until the end of 2020, “published a post on social media at half-time without our knowledge as part of a paid advertising partnership,” criticized the broadcaster.

He also "made it very clear that the ARD, according to its guidelines, does not tolerate any form of surreptitious advertising and unrecognized product placement of its protagonists".

The first is still waiting for a statement from Schweinsteiger and his management.

The audience interest increased again significantly in the final phase of the EM.

At the end of the tournament, the final gave ZDF another top audience rating and more viewers than ARD at the EM 2016.

An average of 20.90 million people saw Italy win against England on penalties on Sunday evening.

According to the broadcaster, the market share was 64.4 percent.

Only three games of the German national team had more TV viewers at the EM than the final.

The final of the EM, postponed by a year, was more successful than the final in 2016. Five years ago, according to the AGF Video Research, an average of 18.834 million people sat in front of the television.

The market share of the ARD broadcast in Portugal's victory against France was 59.5 percent at the time.

Viewed over the entire tournament, there were fewer TV viewers on ARD and ZDF.

An average of 11.741 million watched in 2016, just under 10.4 million this time.

However, the streaming figures - which have not yet been finally calculated - are not included in this value.

In addition, Telekom does not publish how many people have used its paid Magenta TV service, which broadcast all the games.

"Overall, we are satisfied with the response, on television, but also in the ZDF media library and on social media," commented ZDF sports director Thomas Fuhrmann.

Outside of classic TV, there were “record values.

The charisma of football has proven itself again, ”said Fuhrmann.

"The EM took a moment to find its audience."

ARD sports coordinator Axel Balkausky said: "We are very pleased that the audience was very interested in the entire tournament and also shows the relevance of our broadcasts to the public." Both channels were "very successful", especially with younger viewers, as Fuhrmann emphasized.

The most successful game of the EM was the ARD broadcast of the defeat of the German national team against England with 27.49 million (market share 76.3 percent).

The importance of live streams on the Internet is shown by the 4.6 million views of this game.