FIFA viewership in Bengal soars, overall viewership dips

Multi Screen Media's (MSM) strategy of airing the FIFA World Cup 2014 on its Bengali channel, Sony Aath, is certainly paying off. In the first week of the tournament, around 5.6 million viewers in Kolkata alone have tuned in to Sony Aath to watch the football matches, as opposed to 4.6 million viewers in 2010 (aired on ESPN). In the rest of Bengal, 1.6 million viewers tuned in to the channel as opposed to 1.2 million in 2010.

In West Bengal, the Bengali feed has delivered almost on par with the English commentary with an average TVR (TV Rating) for all for games of 1.7 TVR for Aath and 2.3 TVR SIX. West Bengal being passionate about football, MSM in the past few months had organised several promotions in the state, one of them being a tie-up with prisons across the state so prisoners could also watch the matches on Aath.

However, the overall reach (on Six and Aath) of the 2014 FIFA, in the first five days has actually been  lower this year at 20 million, as opposed to 24 million in the last World Cup.