FIFA WC 2018 a blockbuster in India; women trained 47% of viewers

The World Cup final between France and Croatia was played in the 29th week of the BARC India calendar

making it the football tournament most watched in India lately. France's 4-2 win in the final against Croatia emerged as the country's most watched match with 15.8 million cumulative impressions according to India's Broadcast Audience Research Council rankings.

Unlike other international football tournaments or previous editions Of the FIFA World Cup this year the matches were broadcast in prime time and this helped the broadcaster, said Vinit Karnik, head of the company , GroupM ESP. "Overall, the interest in football in the country is increasing.Four years ago, India hosted only one tournament in the I-League.Now with that, there is also the Indian Super League (ISL) .The notoriety of this sport has increased thanks to the influence of local football, "he added.

With the increase in the number of games, marketing spending on sports has increased over the years. Star India promotes ISL both in the air and on the outside. The official FIFA India TV channels Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI), just before the FIFA World Cup, launched the #MeriDoosriCountry campaign to raise awareness among football fans in India who have no contact during the World Cup. five dedicated channels to broadcast the tournament in six different languages. DD Sports also played a number of games. "Signals in Hindi, Malayalam, Bengali, Tamil and Telugu contributed to 46% of the total television audience," said Rajesh Kaul, Head of Revenue – Distribution and Head Sport, FNIH. "In addition, viewers contributed to 47% of the total number of viewers."

Sony's goal was to reap more than 200 million advertising revenue from the tournament. "We have achieved our advertising sales targets for both television and digital," said Rohit Gupta, Head of Revenue – Advertising Sales and International Business, FNIH. The advertising sales business figure is estimated at about 210 crore this year.

SPNI was also the official presenter of the Rio World Cup in 2014, and it is estimated that during the 2014 edition, the network managed to achieve 90 crore advertising. The video-on-demand platform of SPNI, SonyLIV, broadcast the games. To watch it live, you had to subscribe to a premium pack from 49 € per month. A five-minute deferred stream was available for free on the platform, and according to the network, 70 million users were streaming matches on SonyLIV.

The final of the World Cup between France and Croatia was played at week 29 of the BARC India calendar. In the same week, India played England in the international decision of one day of the series of three bilateral cricket matches. The final soccer game broadcast on Sony Ten 2 has yielded 5.7 million impressions to ensure the best position as the most watched sports program, marking India 's match against the US. England on Sony Ten 3, which collected 5.3 million impressions. Cup held in Russia and other similar events on the line can help boost international sports tourism. "This is going to be a big part of the sports tourism game," said Karnik.