MUMBAI: Doubts had been raised whether arguably the world's biggest competitive sports event - the ongoing Rio Olympics 2016 - would attract Indian viewers. Mainly because of the time zone differences between India and Brazil.

But lo and behold even the opening ceremony of the games lured viewers like a moth to a lamp; according to Zapr's TV viewership audience pool.  More than 5.6 million Indians tuned in at 4 am on 6 August 2016 to watch Gisele Bundchen stage her interpretation of the Girl from Ipanema, apart from a host of other Brazlilian singing and sports talents.

Day one of the Olympics received a grand viewership of 52.7 million viewers in India, despite claims that this year’s Olympics telecast has  received the worst television viewership ratings compared to previous years in some parts of the world.

The repeat telecast of the opening ceremony later in the day was watched by 6.1 million viewers. According to the reports,  7.5 per cent of  the viewers who watched the live telecast in the morning came back to watch the highlights.

The live telecast saw the highest viewership for the day between 8 pm and 11 pm pm during which famous Indian sportspersons took to the field: 14.4 million viewers tuned in between 8pm and 9 pm witnessing the Indian men’s hockey team’s first win in the Olympics this year.

The viewership increased to 15.4 million viewers in the next hour as Indian tennis players like Leander Paes, Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza kicked off with their first matches in the tournament.

A large portion of Indian TV viewers who watched the Rio Olympics had previously followed other popular sport events on TV, a massive 73.4 per cent of viewers who watched the Olympics had also watched the biggest sporting league in India – Vivo IPL 2016. 36.4 per cent of the Olympic viewers also watched the Pro Kabaddi League while 19.3 per cent watched the UEFA Euro 2016. A smaller portion of 1.5 per cent of Olympic viewers watched both the recent tennis tournaments.

The audience also heavily consumed Hindi GECs’ programmes apart from the sports channels  which were The Kapil Sharma Show on Sony Entertainment TV, Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa on Colors TV and The Voice Kids on And TV.

The state of Maharashtra received the highest viewership for the Olympics telecast with 17. 9 per cent in urban and 7.9  per cent in rural. Uttar Pradesh received 10. 5 per cent urban share and 6.6 per cent rural. Down south , Tamil Nadu  experienced the largest share of rural audiences watching the Olympics telecast in India. It recorded a 9.2 per cent urban share and 8.6 per cent rural share. On the other hand Andhra Pradesh generated an 8.7 percent urban share and 4.3 per cent rural. Karnataka got 8.6 per cent Uuban  and 5.6 per cent rura shares while  West Bengal notched up 7.5 per cent urban share and 6.0 per cent rural.