In the latest BAofE magazine, Steve Baddeley talks about badminton being in a very 'precarious' position in terms of the Olympics, due to it having the third lowest tv viewing figures for any sport. I had thought that badminton was the second most watched sport of all at the 2000 games. Does anyone know if this is true or not? The only story I can find on the figures is at worldbadminton.net : http://www.worldbadminton.net/getstory.asp?id=129 But it doesn't give any info in comparison with other sports.
Agree. we are getting conflicting information. What is the truth? If badminton wasn't watched much, then admitting it would enable recognition if the problem. I think in UK, the only Olympic badminton shown was the Ladies singles final. That would count. I remember in OG 1992, a few qualifying games were shown on BBC. Then nothing on the finals. I was really hunting around on the channels at the time so I doubt any was shown Don't ask about OG 1996 (not living in UK anymore )
FYI, Brits seem to like watching the horses showing off but I saw none of this on HK TV at Sydney 2000. Was the event held?
It is possible that different sources are getting their audience numbers differently. One might came from a formalized survey (nelson ratings) and another from estimates of the general population of china and SE Asia in general. It is a chicken and egg dilemma, how could one get high TV rating when most western media doesn't broadcast the sydney 2000 badminton.
I definitely remember seeing some of the MD final from OG 1996, and I think there was a little of the MS final as well. Contrast this to 2000, where I managed to see the last 2 points of the MS final. There might have been other stuff on as well, though I was probably at work or sleeping when it was on! Surely the viewing figures for the UK aren't what's really important though. Surely it must be the viewing figures for around the world. If indeed badminton had a world audience of around 1.75 billion, then surely (I keep saying surely!) it must be higher up than 3rd from the bottom. Without being disrespectful to any other sports, I would have thought that at the very worst, badminton would be more watched than say canoeing/kayaking, equestrian events, fencing, handball, modern pentathlon and softball.
