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Business of TV Sport
Sportel Monaco 2011

Rossi comeback rescues Mediaset ratings

Valentino Rossi’s return to the MotoGP championship, after missing four races with a broken leg, gave Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset a ratings boost on Sunday. The German grand prix at Sachsenring, in which Rossi took fourth place, gave the broadcaster an audience of 5.517 million, a 39-per-cent share. It was the largest television audience of the day and the highest in Italy this season for the championship.
The gravity of the Italian’s injury was such that he was initially expected to sit out the rest of the season. His return is a boost for the whole sport but perhaps the biggest beneficiary is Mediaset. Ratings had nosedived in the absence of the rider – nicknamed ‘The Doctor’ – whose audacity on the track and extrovert personality have made him arguably Italy’s biggest sporting star.

For the first race after Rossi’s injury, at Mugello in Italy, ratings fell by 1.3 million, to 4.8 million, a 31-per-cent share. By the Assen grand prix last month the audience had fallen to 2.579 million, a 16-per-cent share. Rossi, the reigning world champion, is expected to leave his Yamaha team next season to join Italian manufacturer Ducati.