TV audience figures

The Vasaloppet captures 73.9 percent of the television audience in Sweden the first Sunday morning in March.  That is quite staggering by North American standards.  The 2013 Cross Country World Cup season boasted an aggregate audience of 1.86 billion viewers over 1,135 hours of broadcast time.  With the Tour de France as a role model, the Swix Ski Classics was inaugurated in 2011.  There are now 32 professional ski teams that compete on this circuit and 200,000 euros in prize money. The series consists of six long-distance classic races: La Diagonela, Marcialonga, König Ludwig Lauf, Vasaloppet, Birkebeinerrennet, and the Årefjällsloppet. These races were broadcast last year in 50 countries with 20 million live viewers.  Decent numbers, although certainly not prime time viewing in North America.  (Source: Faster Skier/FIS)