The 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia has broken all previous viewership records. The 64-match tournament had a viewership of 254 million in India. The final match between France and Croatia saw 51.2 million viewers tuning in. According to BARC, this is the highest reach for any FIFA World Cup match till date.
As it turns out, the top reach markets for the live matches were Kolkata, Kerala, Maharashtra, Goa and Assam, North East and Sikkim. Kolkata led the lot with 22.2 million viewership followed by Kerala at 17.8 million.
BARC data also reveals that the local language feeds in Hindi, Malayalam, Bengali, Tami and Telugu have been sampled by 70.7 million viewers, which is 66 percent of the overall tournament reach.
“Our regional commentary has been well received, with 9.7 million viewers in Kerala sampling Malayalam commentary and 10.7 million viewers in West Bengal sampling Bengali commentary,” said Rajesh Kaul, chief revenue officer – distribution and head - sports, Sony Pictures Networks India.
“We are extremely excited about the success of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia with the viewership meeting all our expectations. This definitely reflects the passion the sport is seeing in India and Sony Pictures Networks India is proud to be associated with this tournament,” added Kaul.
Interestingly, female viewers made up for 47 percent of the total tournament viewership.
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