Convenience is more important to consumers than ever before. They want to enjoy media on their own terms, deciding for themselves how, when and where they consume it. Even though the World Cup is such a major sporting event and only comes around every four years, it still needs to be broadcast at convenient times of day to attract the largest possible audiences.
Initiative’s most recent ViewerTrack shows that World Cup 2006 is more popular than World Cup 2002 in terms of the global TV audience, because live matches are being shown at much more convenient times of day for fans in Europe and South America. Overall global average audiences for World Cup 2006 matches are up by 25 per cent from 2002.
World Cup 2006 has seen audience growth in many European and South American countries compared with 2002. Live matches from World Cup 2006 are shown in the afternoon and peak evening slots across Europe, attracting far more viewers than in 2002, when live matches were shown in the morning in Europe. Even though afternoon matches are less popular than evening matches, they are still more watched than those broadcast in the morning. Audiences have increased the most in 2006 compared with 2002 in key European soccer markets, such as the Netherlands (+10.1 ratings), Germany (+7.9 ratings) and Switzerland (+7.7 ratings).
These increases in TV ratings in Europe and South America have more than compensated for the fall in World Cup 2006 audiences in Asia compared with 2002. With Japan / South Korea hosting the last World Cup and the unexpected success of South Korea in reaching the semi-finals, local interest pushed Asian World Cup audiences up to their highest ever levels in 2002. However, matches from World Cup 2006 are shown live late at night and in the early hours of the morning in Asia, which has depressed their viewing figures. Audiences are down notably in Malaysia (-6.6 ratings) and South Korea (-3.6 ratings) for 2006 vs. 2002.
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