June 27, 2013 – The television coverage report from the 2012/13 season provided by data provider Repucom summarises the detailed viewing figures from the FIS World Cup series. It features highlights such as the overall total broadcasting time estimated at 6’593 hours across the annually measured countries with the total cumulated TV audience for the seven FIS World Cup series in the Olympic disciplines at approximately 7’927 million television viewers.

In terms of both broadcasting time and audience, the Audi FIS Ski World Cup accounted for the highest volume with 3’221 hours and a total audience of 2’591 million. As a consequence of a season including the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Schladming fewer World Cup events have taken place compared to the 2011/2012 season and therefore there is a small decrease of broadcasting time and cumulated audience. Compared to the 2010/2011 season which also included FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER), media impact remained stable, despite less cumulated audience, but compensated by more broadcasting time. In Alpine Skiing, five countries (AUT, GER, ITA, SWE, SUI) and the Pan-European coverage by Eurosport generate more than 81% of the media impact (a combination of broadcasting time and audience), as in the previous season.

The respective figures for the men’s FIS Ski Jumping World Cup presented by Viessmann are 1’090 hours of broadcasting time and 2’315 million audience and for the FIS Cross-Country World Cup presented by Viessmann, 1’135 of broadcasting time and 1’865 audience. Compared to the World Championship season in 2010/11, in particular the broadcasting figures for Cross-Country Skiing, have seen a large rise of close to 25%.

Overall, Ski Jumping remains the discipline with the highest media impact of all FIS disciplines with close to 40% of broadcasting time generated by live coverage.This figure will be further optimised by the introduction of fixed starting times for the competitions during the next World Cup season. Meanwhile, the ladies’ FIS Ski Jumping World Cup saw a substantial 30% increase in media impact in only its second season.

Moreover, it should be noted that seasonal highlights like the Tour de Ski in Cross-Country Skiing and the Four-Hills-Tournament in Ski Jumping each generate one third of the total media impact in these disciplines showing the attractiveness of these formats.

FIS Alpine and Nordic World Ski Championships

Based on the viewing figures published by the European Broadcasting Union, the TV and marketing rights holder of the FIS World Ski Championships in the Alpine and Nordic events 2013, they were seen by almost 1.1 billion people worldwide. While some 632 million cumulative viewers watched the 855 hours of coverage (live, delayed, news or highlights) from the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2013 in Schladming (AUT), the total coverage of more than 714 hours from the Nordic events in Val di Fiemme (ITA) was enjoyed by more than 444 million global TV viewers.

March 27, 2012 – I’ve again assembled the data from the Big Race out in Wisconsin in to a bunch of nerdy-but-interesting data on BirkieGuide.com. Feel free to share it around. After a couple too many nights not getting to bed on time, I’ve finally gotten the ducks in order (I hope) and launched everything on to the statistics site. So if you are bemoaning the early spring and want to launch yourself deep in to mostly meaningless statistical “analyses” from the race, by all means, go ahead and do so.

Let us know if there’s anything else you’d like to see. I can make no guarantees — it’s time to spend my evenings doing something more productive, like training and core — but if you have an interesting idea, have at it.

A couple of highlights:
– Most of the data is back from last year, and most of it in an easier-to-navigate fashion
– We did some comparisons with last year

New data include:
– split time correlations
– a really interesting page showing that top skiers ski at a much steadier relative pace than everyone else (my favorite new data)
– information correlating weather conditions and Birkie sign-ups (it also has MSP snowfall data back to 1900)
– And a whole lot more…

You can find all of it at HERE and of course find the homepage at www.birkieguide.com.

December 07, 2011 (Washington, DC) – SnowSports Industries America (SIA) and The Leisure Trends Group have released the first set of RetailTRAK Data (Aug – Oct 2011) for the 2011/2011 snow sports season. The data reveals that snow sports retail sales are off to a strong start this season and equipment is leading the charge.

Overall, snow sports retail receipts are up 14% in dollars sold and 7% in units sold August – October (pre-season) 2011. Total snow sports pre-season sales increased from $565M through October 2010 to $644M through Oct 2011.

“We entered this season with inventories full of 2011/2012 gear after last season’s epic conditions that kept participants on the slopes and in the shops well into spring. Consumers began this season with uninterrupted enthusiasm for the coming La Niña repeat and it is definitely showing up in equipment sales.” commented Kelly Davis, SIA’s Director of Research.

Pre-season sales in the snow sports market traditionally serve as opportunities for consumers to get discounts on items left in inventories over the summer, but this year consumers were buying snow sports gear at full price at the Labor Day and Columbus Day sales. This phenomenon is most apparent in alpine equipment where buxom sales led the pre-season market. Apparel and accessories sales also gained over last season and strong prices seen at the end of the 2010/2011 season continued into the early 2011/2012 season.

Trends to watch in 2011/2012
– Reverse and mixed camber ski sales doubled compared to pre-season sales a year ago to 32,000 pairs.
The fatter, the better – flat skis with waist widths 95mm-110mm are up 60% in units sold to more than 20,000 units in the first months of 2011/2012.
– Rocker/Reverse camber snowboard sales continue to rise; now 70% of all boards sold are rocker.
– Bargain hunters will notice that snowboard apparel average prices are down 4% from August – October 2010.
– Helmets sales continue to grow, unit sales are up 12.5% so far this season.
– Sales of beacons, probes and shovels, necessities for the backcountry experience, are up 19% in units sold.

Consumers are looking for snow sports gear in every sales channel and all three retail channels measured experienced growth in the early season. Online sales are up 12% in units sold and 19% in dollars, while chain store sales are up 10% in units and 10% dollars sold. However, specialty retail continues to dominate the snow sports market with 70% of all retail equipment sales and almost 50% of all retail sales overall. Specialty shop sales reached $319M, a new record for the August to October time frame; up 12% in dollars sold, driven by big gains in equipment sales. Equipment sales in specialty shops increased 12% in units sold and 19% in dollars sold. Chain stores sell about 25% of all snow sports apparel and accessories but just 6% of all equipment. It’s very clear that core snow sports participants, particularly those that purchase equipment enjoy the distinctive expertise that snow sports specialty shops offer to savvy consumers.

The market data presented in this report comes from the Snow Sports RetailTRAK produced for SIA by the Leisure Trends Group. The Leisure Trends Group gathers RetailTRAK data directly from the Point of Sale systems of more than 1,200 snow sports retailers. For more information about snow sports retail sales and other SIA Research products including the Snow Sports Participation Study, Revisiting Growing the Snow Sports Industry, the Snow Sports Uniform Purchasing Study, the Snow Sports Rental Equipment Survey and much more, please contact Kelly Davis, SIA’s Director of Research at KDavis@snowsports.org.

Topline/category retail sales data for the snow sports market is available as a member benefit to all SIA members. In addition, you gain free access to topline data for the Running, Outdoor, and Paddle Sports when you register. The topline data is accessible on a 24/7/365 basis on the Leisure Trends Cross-Industry RetailTRAK data portal. Non-SIA members may subscribe to the topline portal for just $375 per year. To sign up for topline data click HERE.