World Cup Opener Audience Figures Could Reach 150 Million

The opening game of the World Cup is expected to be the most watched sporting event of the year, according to new figures released by Initiative.

Their ViewerTrack research shows an average live audience of 63 million individuals across 27 surveyed markets for the opening match between Germany and Costa Rica, and once they have received audience data from all 50+ markets in their survey Initiative expects the live global audience for the match to be over 150 million viewers.

The 63 million people figure is an increase of 30% compared with the opening game between France and Senegal in the 2002 World Cup. In a lot of countries audience growth more than doubled, and more than tripled in Germany and the Netherlands.

The average German audience for the opening match was 20.1 million people and indications are that the match attracted large average live audiences in other major football markets, such as Poland (6.4 million viewers), France (6.0 million) and Italy (5.6 million).

The ViewerTrack research also shows a live in-home audience of 8.8 million for the BBC1’s coverage of England v Paraguay, although this is nearly one million less than that recorded for the Champions League Final between Barcelona and Arsenal, which was watched at home by 9.6 million Britons.

Audience figures for the England game were significantly lower than for England’s opening matches in the last two World Cups (11.0 million for Tunisia in 1998 and 12.6 million for Sweden in 2002), with Initiative proposing that a combination of hot weather and less than scintillating football lay behind the depressed figures.

Initiative Media: 0207 663 7000 www.initiativemedia.com