From tennis to golf to motorsports, TV broadcasts of international sports events on so-called PAN channels are a crucial factor for achieving good Event KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). Within the mathematical model of X Media Insights, the exceptional importance of the PAN channels’ reach across their entire coverage area becomes evident. This can be illustrated nicely through an example from motorsports.

International sports events across nearly all sports aim to be watched by as many people in as many countries through media coverage. Simultaneously, in the competition among events for attention and positive KPIs within their target audience, there is an intensive attention on ensuring that international fans and viewers are well-represented in measurements. The demand for international media analyses remains unabated, which is good news for our industry. However, X Media Insights has previously highlighted the lack of reliability in many reach measurements in the international context.

This unsatisfactory situation is further aggravated by the challenging nature of measuring so-called PAN channels, i.e., TV sports channels that are not only followed in their home market but in numerous international markets, sometimes across multiple continents. Well-known examples of such PAN channels include Eurosport from France or SuperSport from South Africa.

There is a common perception that channels like Eurosport and SuperSport are crucial for at least 80% of all international sports events. However, the real significance for these events is often unclear. Questions arise, such as: In which countries, and how many people, are actually tuning in to live broadcasts or highlights? Especially in countries with extensive sports coverage, PAN channels may be perceived as niche providers, whose viewership can be overlooked. This, however, is far from the truth.

Consider the example from motorsports, the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC): globally speaking, Eurosport and SuperSport are indeed prominent, but three more PAN channels -Arena Sport, TV5 Monde, and Directv Sports2 – also are positioned among the top 15 most important TV channels. This applies to metrics like broadcast hours, cumulative reach, as well as quality KPIs such as impressions or Event Index points.

For PAN channels to rightfully claim their place, a comprehensive measurement of all reaches in all accessible markets is necessary. This comprehensive measurement was previously challenging with existing methodologies. The innovative mathematical model by X Media Insights has finally addressed this gap. Let’s revisit the WEC broadcasts in 2023 and the PAN channel SuperSport, along with its sub-channels that covered motorsports/WEC last year. Using established methodologies with “officially” measured country audiences and individual estimates would come up to only about 40% of the reach and a mere 5% of the broadcast time.

X Media Insights relies on its comprehensive database with relevant market-specific facts and automatically calculates projections based on over 70 factors per PAN channel per market. We project onto every country where the WEC is broadcast. In this specific case, this projection alone on the five relevant PAN channels has added additional 17,370 hours of broadcast time with a cumulative reach of 855 million. The WEC thus generates additional visibility and viewership, making the sports event significantly more appealing for sponsors. This underscores the importance of reliable measurements once again.

Our mathematical calculation provides realistic figures from additional markets, which are typically left out in most reports from other analysts that we are aware of. Rarely do these reports even include a footnote acknowledging the existence of other unanalyzed markets for

PAN channels. In our approach, all these factors are taken into account within a mathematical system that relies on robust objective factors rather than subjective ones.

The crucial aspect here is not about artificially inflating reach numbers; instead, it’s about creating a truly realistic representation of the broadcasting and audience situation in all its nuances. Depending on the subject and rights holders, our Audience Model can breathe life into many previously unknown areas on the global media map, providing insights that were previously unavailable.

Join us in thinking differently and learn more about our methodology. Feel free to reach out to us.

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