Wrestling Has Become The Most Watched Sport In India According to FICCI Report

It can be observed that cricket might soon lose its proverbial status of the most-watched in India to wrestling. If the television sports audience trends for 2018 is considered as an indicator as per the report of FICCI, wrestling is positioning itself as the most-watched sport on television.

The 2018 has been the year of wrestling in more than one way – on and off the mat. Likes of Bajrang Poonia and Pooja Dhanda have been rocking the mat, off it the wrestling league had generated new viewership milestones, while Wrestling Federation of India has become first Olympic sports’ which is the governing body in the country to provide annual retainer ship to its top athlete. Only the Board of Control for Cricket in India i.e. BCCI has been providing annual contracts to the international cricketers in India.

The report of FICCI-EY on the business of Indian media and entertainment (M&E) has made some very interesting observations on sports. The report, quoting BARC India data (TG: All India / 2+/ 2017 & 2018/Program Theme: Sports), has acknowledged that Wrestling overtook Cricket in 2018 in terms of total viewership, on the back of weekly content through the year.

Wrestling has reportedly had a 20% share of total sports viewership with Cricket coming a close second at 19%. Key properties were WWE within this category and the professional wrestling league in the other international events every time the sport is broadcast live in the country.

The report reflected that Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) has seen a sharp fall of 31% in its viewership ratings for the first 12 matches of its sixth season when compared to the previous year. The first 24 matches of the 2018 season was seen by over 23.7 crore viewers as compared to 34.5 crore viewers last year, according to televisionpost.com. Wrestling last year got a major shot in the arm when Tata Motors Commercial Vehicle has arrived on board and the commercial partner of the Wrestling Federation of India. The WFI also for the first time had involved a professional sports management firm Sporty Solutionz. The company was behind the WFI–Tata Motors historic deal. With the help of a acute professional approach, the WFI is all set to make many other major announcements in 2019. Insidesport.co has reliably learnt about a couple of other major tie ups in the interest of the sport and sportspersons coming up soon.

By: Preeti Narula

Content: https://www.insidesport.co/wrestling-most-watched-sport-in-india-ficci-report/