Football Fever on The Boost!

Cricket remains the fever of passion for Indians, but football got a boost with the just-concluded 2018 FIFA World Cup. Even though India was not participating in the FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia yet the viewership got a high level boost.

For the first 58 matches, the FIFA World Cup 2018 gained a viewership of 194.1 million impressions, whereas the combined viewership for the first two India vs England T20 matches was 20.7 million impressions.  As compared to 2016, where the total TV viewership was 2.8 per cent the viewership grew to 3.48 per cent in 2018.  With this record 64 per cent contribution to the sports genre is from cricket, it remains the dominant sport being consumed on TV currently. Though, premium sports events like FIFA World Cup, Barclays Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga and more have also proved to be a hit with Indian viewers. The scale of viewership for football has been on hike since the FIFA World Cup 2018. In the month of June which had cricket that was between India vs Ireland and India vs England and soccer, Hero Intercontinental Cup and FIFA World Cup, the contribution of soccer was 30 per cent whereas cricket contributed 15 per cent to the sports genre on TV. Rajesh Kaul who is Chief Revenue Officer, Distribution, and Head, Sports, Sony Pictures Networks (SPN), one of the predominant players in the sports broadcasting business in India said even though India did not participate, viewers in the nation had their favorite countries during the tournament, in which France emerged as the winner.

By: Shruti Anand

Content: https://www.hindustantimes.com/football/with-fifa-world-cup-2018-football-viewership-gets-a-boost-in-india/story-elaKMUA3YL7GfKF6smLJeP.html