Not surprisingly, in countries that qualify for the World Cup, local TV viewing peaks when the national team plays a match. In the Group Stage of the 2002 World Cup, in countries that qualified, audiences were 196 per cent higher for matches played by their home team, compared with matches where they did not play. However, in 2006, Initiative's most recent ViewerTrack reveals that World Cup fans are taking more interest in all matches in the tournament, not just the ones where their home teams are playing.
Overall interest in the Group Stage of World Cup 2006 has grown compared with that in World Cup 2002. Higher global audience figures have been driven by more favourable scheduling across key European and South American soccer markets than when it was hosted by Japan and South Korea four years ago. However, in countries which qualified for both tournaments, audiences have grown significantly for matches not involving their national sides.
In fact, for the 16 countries that qualified for both World Cup 2006 and 2002 for which we currently have data, the average audience watching all 48 Group matches rose by 16 per cent. Average audiences supporting home team matches increased by 7 per cent. That's to say, audiences for Group matches in which their home team did not play, rose twice as fast as those where they did play.
This means that while audiences for home team matches still outstrip other teams' matches, the gap is narrowing. In the same 16 countries, audiences for home team matches in the Group Stage of World Cup 2006 were 174 per cent higher than the average audience over all 48 Group matches, compared with the 196 per cent difference in 2002.
This is good new for advertisers, sponsors and broadcasters since with broader audience interest across all teams, they can continue to draw large TV audiences for World Cup matches even when a nation is not watching in support of its home team.
The uplift in viewing for a country's national team is smallest in the USA. While in most countries audiences more than double to support their home team, audiences for games involving the US team only jumped on average by 52 per cent. The USA is the only country in the world where its own country's matches are not the most watched. Brazil, Italy and Mexico's matches all drew larger average audiences in the US during the Group stage than the USA's own games.
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