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Béla Réthy in the World Cup semifinals
Photo: Robert Michael / dpa
To say goodbye to the commentator icon Béla Réthy, ZDF achieved the best ratings during the World Cup in Qatar for a match without German participation, with an average of 10.58 million football fans.
The market share of the live broadcast of the 2-0 win by defending champions France against outsiders Morocco from 8 p.m. was 36.1 percent.
It was also Réthy's 66th birthday - and the last time he commented on a football game live for the Mainz broadcaster.
The highest rate so far for a game without German participation resulted from the quarter-final duel between France and England (9.14 million/MA: 33.4 percent), also in second place.
The highest reach in the current tournament for the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF before the final is the German elimination of the preliminary round, despite the win against Costa Rica (4: 2) with 17.43 million (MA: 53.7 percent).
However, the annual record of 17.9 million viewers at the women's European Championship final (market share: 64.8 percent) on July 31 between Germany and England (1:2 aet) could not be topped.
It is questionable whether the final between France and Argentina on Sunday (4 p.m. CET/ARD and MagentaTV) will change that.
The streaming service MagentaTV already took stock of the World Cup on Thursday and was satisfied.
"In terms of key figures such as viewers, subscribers, awareness and customer satisfaction, the platform was able to exceed its own expectations and improve significantly compared to EURO 2020," said a press release after 62 of the 64 games in the program.
More than 300 live hours were broadcast during the World Cup.
"Taking into account the difficult circumstances surrounding this World Cup and the early exit of the German national team, we rate the course as positive for us overall," summarized Arnim Butzen, TV boss at Telekom.
With four million MagentaTV customers, the station's live reporting "regularly reached seven-digit usage figures per match day," said Butzen.
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