MGC Race Olympic Marathon Trials TV Broadcast Earns 29.9% Viewership Ratings

For the first time, the TBS and NHK television networks collaborated to produce a joint broadcast of Sunday's Marathon Grand Championship Olympic marathon trials. TBS covered the men's race and NHK simultaneously broadcast the women's race, with both networks sharing the same feed before the start and switching between each others' footage mid-race to show updates on the other gender's race. According to Video Research Inc., TBS' broadcast of the men's race earned viewership ratings of 16.4%. NHK's broadcast of the women's race scored ratings of 13.5%, giving the joint broadcast a combined rating of 29.9%.

The men's race began at 8:50 a.m. and the women's race at 9:10. Both networks' broadcasts began at 8:00. NHK commentator Masanori Aiba, a member of popular boy band Arashi, and TBS announcer Shinichiro Yasuzumi appeared together onscreen to jointly introduce the races. Aiba said, "This is the first-ever collaborative broadcast that goes beyond the boundaries of a single TV network." Yasuzumi added, "Whichever channel you are watching right now, you will be seeing the same video feed." Throughout the races, TBS' Ryusuke Ito and NHK's Teruyoshi Komiyama served as "correspondents," each appearing repeatedly on the other networks' broadcast to give updates on the action within the race their own network was covering.

Shogo Nakamura (26, Fujitsu) and Yuma Hattori (25, Toyota) took the top two spots in the men's race to win spots on the Olympic team. 3rd placer Suguru Osako (28, Nike Oregon Project) earned a provisional place on the team pending the outcome of this winter's MGC Final Challenge series in which other men can steal his spot if they run 2:05:49 or better in one of the three major domestic men's marathons, Fukuoka International, Tokyo and Lake Biwa. Honami Maeda (23, Tenmaya) and Ayuko Suzuki (27, Japan Post) likewise went 1-2 in the women's race to join the Olympic team, with 3rd-placer Rei Ohara (29, Tenmaya) on hold depending on whether other women can run 2:22:22 in Saitama, Osaka International or Nagoya in the women's Final Challenge.

Translator's note: For comparison, this year's Hakone Ekiden earned record-setting viewership ratings of 30.7% for the Day One broadcast on Jan. 2 and 32.1% for Day Two on Jan. 3.

source articles:
https://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/201909170000084.html
https://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/201909170000089.html
translated and edited by Brett Larner