India changes loyalty as soccer overtakes cricket

New Delhi, June 20 (UNI) Cricket lovers in the country seem to have switched allegiance with an unprecedented viewership for the ongoing soccer World Cup.

The FIFA World Cup, the biggest sporting spectacle in the world, has gripped the Indian audience as never before with the opening match between Germany and Croatia garnering an impressive TVR of 3.43 on June 9.

The World Cup, telecast live and exclusive on ESPN STAR Sports, registered more eyeballs than India-West Indies Test Matches (TVR 2.8) on the competing channel in an otherwise cricket-crazy country.

A delighted R C Venkateish, Managing Director, ESPN Software India Pvt. Ltd., said, ''The ratings that have come in are phenomenal. Being a once in four years tournament and magnitude the World Cup is played on, we did expect good ratings, but this has taken us completely by surprise. Clearly the Indian audience's love is soccer.'' The average ratings for the first two days were 2.3 across India with even the pre and post match analysis registering a high of 1.01 for the first two days.

Markets like Kolkata and the rest of West Bengal, Kerela, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu did exceptionally well for the inaugural match. The match between Germany and Costa Rica did a rating of 22 in Kolkata and 17.8 in Kerela.

''We reckon that this edition of the FIFA World Cup will break viewership records in India,'' Mr Venkateish added.

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