Date:20/06/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/06/20/stories/2006062004470300.htm

Back Football has viewers' eyeballs

Our Bureau

Dents viewing share of leading Hindi general entertainment channels

Mumbai , June 19

The FIFA 2006 World Cup has witnessed a whopping 83 per cent jump in reach as compared to 2002. According to a report conducted by TAM Media Research, FIFA 2006 reached as many as 4.4 (across six metros) million Indian homes on the opening day as opposed to 2.4 million (across six metros) homes in 2002.

The report says that while FIFA 2006 opened to a TVR of 3.31, the opening day TVR in 2002 was 2.48. This indicates a jump of 33 per cent over the first day of FIFA 2002. The report attributes this steep rise in audience base to the tournament being aired during the Indian prime time.

FIFA 2006 has also helped the sports channels to create a dent on the prime time viewing share of leading Hindi general entertainment channels. The report says that while the sports channels increased their viewership contribution from a mere two per cent (one day before start) to 19 per cent on the opening day, Hindi General Entertainment Channels saw a noticeable 11 per cent decrease in viewership.

The soccer world cup this year also witnessed 33 per cent unique viewer walk-ins to ESPN in the first two days. These are viewers who never visited the channel earlier, which, according to the report, is a reflection of the impact of the marketing and promotional exercises taken up by the channel.

Fall in ads

Though the reach of FIFA 2006 is much higher than 2002, there is a fall in the volume of advertising. According to a survey done by AdEx India (a division of TAM Media Advertising), the volume of ads fell by 10 per cent this year. The report says that while FIFA 2002 witnessed 14,770 secondages of advertising in the first seven days, this year the volume of advertising has fallen to 13,346 secondages. While 2002 saw as many as 22 brands advertising during this period, in 2006 it has fallen to 18. However, the advertising time on the first day of FIFA 2006 went up by 158 per cent and by 62 per cent on the second day. Similarly the categories of brands, which advertised also went up from nine to 11 this year. While some of the common categories which advertised both in 2002 and 2006 are TV sets, soft drink brands, two-wheelers and cars and jeeps, the new entrants are cell phone services, handsets, corporate ads, life insurance, software and social advertisements.

In the common category of brands, which advertised both in 2002 and 2006, the car and jeep brands are the only category, whose spends have gone up by 50 per cent in terms of secondages. The spends of TV sets has fallen by 82 per cent in FIFA 2006, while soft drink spends have dipped by 39 per cent and that of two-wheelers by 30 per cent.