The final of Euro 2004 easily eclipsed the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games to win the title of the most watched sporting event of the year, concludes a study harshly critical of global sport events for inflating their viewing figures.
The final between Portugal and Greece was seen by 153 million TV viewers globally, aided by a massive rise in the number in Asian viewers, cementing football's place as the most popular sport in the world.
But the Olympics produced four events in the top 10. The second most watched event was the opening ceremony of the games, which attracted 127 million viewers, followed by the closing ceremony, which attracted 96 million.
The ViewerTrack report from media agency Initiative Worldwide found global sporting events vastly inflated their viewing figures, claiming "the 15 events were chosen because, for each of them, worldwide audiences of at least several hundred million people are claimed".
But Kevin Alavy, an analyst at Initiative Worldwide, said: "Actual live audiences for these events can be very different from the claimed audiences."
The International Olympic Committee estimated that the 2000 Sydney Games were watched by 3.7 billion people in 220 countries.
"They are talking it up," said Mr Alavy, adding that football was vastly increasing its appeal.
"We found that the Asian audience for Euro 2004 final was bigger than the Asian audience for the Olympic Games opening ceremony. The Olympic Games could only attract a lower audience in Asia because it was on in the middle of the night.
"Football is massively increasing its worldwide reach very quickly. We found that Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia achieved very good viewing figures even though they were not involved."
Last year's most popular event, the Super Bowl, came fourth this year, attracting 95 million people across the globe.
The Olympic men's 100m running final and men's 200m freestyle swimming final ranked fifth and sixth, with 87 million and 66 million viewers respectively.
The Monaco grand prix, the most popular formula one race of 2004, came seventh with 59 million viewers. Last year the Brazilian grand prix was the most popular race, but suffered this year due to the dominance of Michael Schumacher and Ferrari. Last year the Brazilian race was the first race of the year; this year it was the 18th and final race.
The Champions League final between Porto and Monaco scraped into eight place with 56 million viewers. The 2004 final suffered an 18% fall in audience compared with the previous year because for the first time the finalists did not include teams from Europe's four biggest footballing nations, Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.
The women's and men's singles at Wimbledon were equally popular, partly due to how winner Maria Sharapova captured the public's imagination in her win against Serena Williams. The women's single final attracted 21 million viewers, as did the men's singles final between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick.
The remainder of the 15 surveyed events, including the final stage of the Tour de France, the FA Cup final, the Grand National and the Boat Race, each attracted fewer than 20 million viewers.
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