India embraces World Cup fever

Viewing figures in parts of Asia are as much as 80 per cent down on 2002, thanks to unfavourable kick-off times and the somewhat disappointing display from the Asian teams in the tournament.  A far cry from Japan and South Korea 2002, when both host nations won their group.   

Despite this, however, one Asian market has managed to buck this trend completely: India.  Ratings in India are lower than other Asian markets, but viewing figures are growing.  The average live program audience in India is more than 50 per cent higher than in was for World Cup 2002.  This is an even faster rate of growth than in many of the major football markets around the world, such as the UK, France, Germany, Brazil and Argentina.

To outsiders, this may seem surprising.  India has never qualified for the World Cup and lie a lowly 118th in the FIFA World Rankings, nestled between Hong Kong and New Zealand.  Yet soccer is popular in the country: it is played regularly by young people, league soccer was played in India long before it was in Europe and in Calcutta's East Bengal and Mohan Bagan, India boasts one of the fiercest domestic soccer rivalries in the world.  Crowds of 130,000 for this match are not unheard of.

In this context, the popularity of World Cup 2006 seems a little less surprising.  The most popular game of the first 26 matches in India was the opening match between Germany and Costa Rica on ESPN, which enjoyed an average programme audience of 2 million individuals according to figures released by TAM.

Viewing figures for the evening games are lower due to time differences: they kick-off at 00:30 in India.  This also partly explains the reason for viewing figures for these matches dropping significantly in the second half of games.  On average, average audiences are 25% lower in the second half than the first.  This is unusual given viewing figures tend to rise for the second half of matches when the final result gets decided.

However, certain sectors of the population are burning the midnight oil and staying up to watch the entire matches.  More than 50% of the audiences watching the late night matches are 16-34 years old.  The late-night match with the highest viewing figures was Brazil vs. Croatia out of the first 26 matches of the tournament. 

Perhaps the only people who are less than pleased with the ‘World Cup Effect’ are the other TV channels in India.  The popularity of the tournament is highlighted by the decline in ratings of other non-soccer programming in the country.  Even the most popular general entertainment programmes and Hindi movies have seen ratings fall.

This is not just an issue in India.  Global audiences for Formula One, the World’s most watched annual sporting event, have dropped during the World Cup.  This year’s Canadian Grand Prix fell on the same day as the England vs. Ecuador and Portugal vs. Holland Second Round matches.  With many viewers choosing to watch the football, the global average audience for the Canadian Grand Prix fell by 20 per cent compared with the same race in 2005.

Comments

[celpjefscycle]

Thanks for information.
many interesting things
Celpjefscylc

[Robert (Again)]

Great post, good to see countries like India embrace soccer and football as we like to call it.