MUMBAI: The 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia continues to surpass expectations for football viewership in India in its second week. The tournament that was telecast live on SONY TEN 2, SONY TEN 3 and SONY ESPN channels and live streamed on SonyLIV app & website, garnered over 117 million viewers across 26 matches played in the first nine days of the tournament.

Key Viewership Highlights for the first nine days of the tournament:

The total cumulative reach of the event on our network is 117.3 million viewers. (BARC, All India, CS2+, LIVE matches + wraparound shows + highlights + repeats + surround programming of FIFA World Cup, SPN Sports Network, SonlyLIV)
99.3 million viewers watched the World Cup on TV and over 18 million viewers live streamed it on SonyLIV 
Top markets in terms of reach for LIVE matches on TV
West Bengal – 14.8 mn
Kerala – 14.5 mn
North East – 8.4 mn
Maharashtra – 7.1 mn
Female viewership has contributed to 46% of the reach of the tournament (BARC, All India, CS2+, LIVE matches, SPN Sports Network)
Local language feeds (Hindi + Malayalam + Bengali + Tamil + Telugu) have contributed to 46% of the overall viewership (BARC, All India, CS2+, LIVE matches, SPN Sports Network)
Regional commentary: 6.8 million viewers in Kerala sampling Malayalam commentary and 5.4 million viewers in West Bengal sampling Bengali commentary
Interest runs high for the tournament in rural markets, with 41% of the total reach coming from rural India (BARC, All India, CS2+, LIVE matches, SPN Sports Network)
The Germany vs Mexico match telecast on June 17 at 8.30 pm is the most watched match of the tournament so far with 7 million impressions (BARC, All India, CS2+, SPN Sports Network)
Average viewership for prime-time games (8.30 pm and 9.30 pm) has been 4.8 million impressions
TVS: Each viewer has spent an average of 145 mins on the tournament in the first nine days.