Kirch: Fifa World Cup TV Coverage Beats Expectations
The culmination of six years of planning – the first television broadcasts from the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan – have achieved reality with a weekend of spectacular football transmitted to 300 broadcast partners and more than 200 countries and territories throughout the world.
The opening ceremony and the first match were covered by 23 cameras and beamed to an estimated television audience of 500 million people worldwide.
In the host country of Japan, the ‘overnights’ show an audience rating of 32.9 for the opening match – more than 39 million viewers – and more than three times the level achieved by the FIFA World Cup final in 1998 (Source: Sports Marketing Surveys/Dentsu Video Research). Ratings from the co-host country of Korea are eagerly anticipated within the next few days.
In Europe, the Opening Match was shown live in the middle of the day on a Friday. The overnight rating in France was 19.0 (76.1% of the available audience) and in Italy, 14.1 (market share of 48.4%).
The audience in Germany was 6.15 million (the highest viewing figure of the day), with a rating of 8.7 and a market share of 56.6%. (Source: FIFA Marketing / Sponsorship Intelligence)
In spite of a time zone difference that does not fit with traditional European viewing habits, people are willing to run their lives around the matches that matter. England’s match against Sweden more than doubled the record UK television audience for a Sunday morning, at 12.6 million, peaking at 14 million.
The ITV coverage of the match achieved a rating of 22.8 and a massive audience share of 84% (Source: BARB). These results compare favourably with England’s first match in the 1998 World Cup, when 11.3 million watched England v Tunisia.
The English press has quoted Brian Barwick, Head of Sport for ITV, as saying: ‘This is a phenomenal audience and proves that, despite the time difference, viewers will make the effort for the big games.’
For Germany versus Saudi Arabia, the audience in Germany was 12 million, with a rating of 17.1 and a healthy 75% market share. And in Italy, the debut match of the Italian team (against Ecuador) reached almost 19 million viewers, for a rating of 34.1 and a market share of 81.3%. (Source: FIFA Marketing / Sponsorship Intelligence).
At the moment, the assessment of the viewing patterns is based on ‘overnights’ and audiences could be significantly higher once ‘out of home’ viewing is added in to the total. This is likely to run at record levels for this World Cup, given the time zone differences and the effect of new media options.
In general terms, while the European audience for the less important matches is down in line with expectations (due to the time zone factor), the audience share is up. South America has kicked in with some superb figures for the first match to feature the Brazilian team (v. Turkey).
Rede Globo, owners of Brazilian channel TV Globo, claim a households rating of 64 and an audience share of more than 90% (as measured in the two key conurbations of Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro).
This excellent result is especially impressive given the early morning transmission time of the match in Brazil, and projected nationally, suggests a total viewing audience of over 32 million.
According to the Spanish-language broadcaster in the USA, Univision, the Croatia v Mexico match achieved an overall rating of 14.1 among the 10.2 million US Hispanic households.
This is considered an outstanding result given the kick-off-time of 2:30 a.m. Eastern Time. The greater LA area alone, with a more favourable kick-off-time of 11:30 p.m., delivered a 31.6 rating.
The launch of the most sophisticated World Cup broadcasting operation in the history of this event – and the first in private hands – went off without a hitch.
In total, the broadcasting operation involves a staff of 3,000 people, working for Host Broadcast Services (HBS) – the dedicated host broadcast company with the exclusive mandate of televising the event.
The production facilities have been greeted by broadcasters as ‘excellent’. Keith Cooper, FIFA’s Communications Director, praised coverage of Uruguay’s goal against Denmark as one of the world’s greatest goals from a production standpoint, calling it ‘technically perfect’.
Francis Tellier, CEO of HBS, said: ‘The initial broadcasts have gone well and everyone is very positive. I believe that the broadcast partners appreciate what we have provided and there is a tremendous sense of teamwork. Given that there are so many more broadcasters and feeds, the challenge is huge – more than double any previous World Cup – it is very encouraging’.
Dominik Schmid, Executive Director for the FIFA Project of KirchSport, said: ‘We are proud we have helped to set the stage for the greatest football festival of all time and we believe that the coverage of this, the first fully digital World Cup, will set new standards in the broadcasting industry.’
For further information please contact:
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John Kristick
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