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BERLIN, June 19: The world is watching the beautiful game.
It is doubtful any other event in history attracted as many television viewers as this year’s World Cup in Japan and South Korea. Ratings for the always popular quadrennial tournament have soared to new heights in countries around the world.
The ratings have been spectacular from the first kickoff on May 31, when an estimated 500 million people of the planet’s six billion population watched Senagal beat titleholders France 1-0.
From Asia to the Americas, television sets seem to be tuned into one thing: 22 men chasing a white ball on a green field.
“The ratings have been simply fantastic,” said Fritz Pleitgen, head of Germany’ ARD network, which drew a record 88 percent market share for a Germany-Paraguay match. “Nothing comes close to capturing peoples attention like the World Cup. That interest is so high despite the early hours surprised us.”
Fears the Asia-based tournament would be a ratings flop in Europe, where matches are broadcast in non-prime time early morning and midday hours, and in the Americas, where they’re aired after midnight, have turned out to be groundless.
Even in the United States, long considered a “black hole” for soccer, ratings have soared as their underdog team has unexpectedly advanced to the quarter-finals.
Theories abound about why this World Cup has been more popular than ever.
Some cite the tight matches and abundance of upsets, with powers Argentina, France, Italy and Portugal all sent home.
The game has also grown to win new audiences. China is a World Cup debutante and Japan and South Korea recorded their first wins at the finals.
Others suggest that unstoppable globalisation has brought nations closer together, and interest in the Cup with it.
RECORD IN BRAZIL: Brazil’s TV titan Globo is scoring record ratings.
For Brazil’s match against Turkey at 6:00 a.m., Globo’s rating was a record 94 percent. A match against Belgium drew 89 percent, both far surpassing 1989 records set by a soap opera.
Italy ground to halt as people during its matches. Some 23 million people watched Italy play against Mexico, a record audience share of 90 percent for state broadcaster RAI.
The BBC said Saturday’s 3-0 win over Denmark was watched by the second-largest television audience for 10 years — trailing only the funeral of Princess Diana in 1997.
Almost half of the country’s 60,000 pubs extended hours so the public could enjoy a pint with breakfast-time football. Last weekend pubs made an extra 100 million dollars as fans drank 20 million more pints of beer than usual.
England’s win against Denmark attracted the biggest Saturday lunchtime audience for five years.
Ireland shut down for all four of its matches.
Irish state broadcaster RTE said 943,000 people — a quarter of the population, excluding the thousands who watched in pubs — watched Ireland lose to Spain.
HIGH RATINGS IN ASIA: Japan has been enthralled by its team’s performance.
The 66.1 percent audience-share for the Japan-Russia match in the Kanto region, the nation’s most populous area, was exceeded only by the most-watched sporting event in Japanese history — a volleyball final against the Soviet Union at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 watched by 66.8 percent.
Even countries that did not send teams stopped to watch.
“We are not really watching the stock market today,” said one trader at a large Cairo bank. “Everyone is watching soccer.”
About 15 percent of games are broadcast on terrestrial television. Sunday’s dramatic clash with Ireland drew 13.2 million viewers, an audience share of nearly 90 percent.
Schools around the globe have shown games in class to keep pupils from staying away to watch their heroes. In Mexico, the education ministry said children could arrive late.
Even prisons have felt the affect. Fifty inmates in soccer-mad Indonesia broke out of jail while guards crowded around a television set to watch Brazil beat Belgium.
French broadcaster TF1 said it has been pleasantly surprised by ratings, despite France’s unexpected early exit.
“We feel the World Cup has gone well,” a TF1 official said. “The early timings of the matches has not penalized us...ratings were on average 15 percent greater than we had expected.”
US, TOO: But nowhere has the ratings surge been more noteworthy than in the United States. America’s win over Mexico drew big audiences in English and Spanish, despite the 2.30am Eastern time start. Cable channel ESPN had three million viewers, triple the audience averaged during previous matches, Nielsen Media Research Inc said.
The biggest US Spanish-language broadcaster, Univision Network, said its telecast of over 4 million made it the second most watched Spanish-language sports telecast ever.
“Americans love big events and Americans love winners...and now America has a winning team,” ESPN spokesman Mac Nwulu said.—Reuters
