The 2018 FIFA World Cup has garnered over 117 million viewers across 26 matches played in the first nine days of the tournament, which was telecast live on three Sony channels and live streamed on SonyLIV app and website.

While 99.3 million viewers watched the World Cup on TV, over 18 million viewers live streamed it on SonyLIV. The top markets in terms of reach for live matches on TV were West Bengal with 14.8 million viewers followed by Kerala 14.5 million, North-East 8.4 million and Maharashtra at 7.1 million, Sony Pictures Networks said in a release today.

Regional language feeds

Female viewership has contributed to 46 per cent of the reach of the tournament. Alongside, local language feeds in Hindi, Malayalam, Bangla, Tamil and Telugu also contributed to 46 per cent of the overall viewership.

“Our regional commentary accounted for 46 per cent of the overall viewership, which shows a deep penetration and high impact that the football tournament has made with our viewers. Our strategy of engaging viewers and catering to their convenience with local language feeds has helped us expand the market and reach out to a wider fan base,” said Rajesh Kaul, President, Distribution and Sports Business, Sony Pictures Networks India.

About 6.8 million viewers in Kerala sampled Malayalam commentary and 5.4 million viewers in West Bengal were sampling Bengali commentary. The Germany vs Mexico match telecast on June 17 remains the most-watched match so far with seven million impressions and each viewer has spent an average of 145 minutes on the tournament in the first nine days, Sony said.

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