fifa: FIFA fever in India: First 19 matches and 31 million hooked to their televisions

As per Broadcasters Audience Research Council (BARC) India data, the first 19 matches of the tournament have reached 31 million TV viewers in the country. The tournament has also attracted sizable viewers on JioCinema app. While Viacom18 Sports has not shared the digital viewership data publicly, industry sources state that the tourney has grossed over 1.1 billion views, as of December 5.

FIFA World Cup has propelled JioCinema to the most downloaded free app across all categories on iOS and Android since the event kicked off.

Sports management company ITW Universe cofounder Bhairav Shanth said the tournament has performed well on TV with a lot of casual fans and first timers tuning in. “Sports18 seems to have done quite well as far as FIFA WC has garnered TRPs of 0.5-0.7 in the first week and a cumulative audience of 130 million over the games in the first six days of the competition,” he said.
Shanth said JioCinema has stabilised as a platform after technical glitches in the initial matches. Fans had complained about the constant buffering during the live streaming of FIFA WC matches on JioCinema.

“After the first couple of days of chaos, JioCinema seems to have improved its performance and with seamless streaming as well the new ‘hype mode’ features they are offering, viewership has picked up,” he noted.