beIN Sport will broadcast the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 in the Middle East and North Africa. Reuters
Doha: The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 is set to break all viewership records as at least 5 billion people from all across the globe are expected to be glued to their television sets and the digital media platforms to follow the 29-day football fiesta that begins on November 20.
A whopping number of 652 million people, which was around one fifth of total population of the world at the time, watched the live global broadcast of the Apollo 11 Moon landing on July 20, 1969.
Sixteen years later, the original Live Aid concert on July 13, 1985 was watched by an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion across 150 countries.
The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games opening ceremony set the record for the highest numbers in viewership for any sports event, reaching an audience of 593 million worldwide and 984 million in reach across all media platforms.
Regional sporting events such as the Super Bowl in the US, and the UEFA Champions League finals have also recorded impressive numbers when it comes to most watched television broadcasts.
Not so long ago, the television was the only media available for viewers across the world to watch live action before the grand entry of numerous social media platforms, pay-per-view platforms etc.
Nowadays, almost all major sporting events are broadcast live via satellites across the globe, making it possible for fans all over the world to connect with action taking places out of reach for them.
With the immense popularity of new-age digital platforms in addition to the comprehensive television coverages lined up for Qatar 2022, the first FIFA World Cup to be held in the Arab region, it is certain that the viewership records will be smashed this time.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino had said Qatar 2022 will be watched by at least 5 billion people around the world, noting a significant rise in the popularity compared to the previous edition in Russia.
The figure noted by Infantino is a rise of 1.5 billion more audience compared to Russia’s record-breaking 3.572 billion viewers on television alone.
More than 130 broadcasters have acquired licenses to air the football showpiece this time in over 120 countries and territories, with the beIN Sport network undertaking the task of broadcasting the same in the Middle East and North Africa.
According to figures released by FIFA highlighted that the official broadcast coverageof 2018 World Cup in Russia drew a record-breaking 3.5 billion viewers on television.
That accounted for over half (51.3%) of the global population (aged 4 years and over), FIFA said after the tournament in Russia.
“There were an estimated 309.7 million people who did not watch coverage in home but did see coverage on digital platforms, in public viewing areas or in restaurants,” the report added.
FIFA also said that the figures saw an increase of 9.5% on the TV audience.
“The final between France and Croatia was seen live by1.12 billion people,” the FIFA report said, adding that at least 76.4% of the total audience watched for at least 30 minutes.
“Viewers in Asia contributed most to the total reach. Almost 1.6 billion individuals were reached by World Cup coverage (either by in-home linear TV,digital platforms or out-of-home), accounting for 43.7% of global reach,” FIFA said.
FIFA had collected the majority of these data was sourced by Public is Media Sport & Entertainment (PMSE) from the official television auditing agencies in markets,via the FIFA Media Rights Licensees (MRLs).
The current household television penetration figures were confirmed via the same source for the majority of MRLs. The data which were not made available by the MRLs were either sourced via the Public is Media network of offices or ordered from official television auditing agencies within the market.
In some cases, the audiences have been up-weighted using officially measured data by analyzing population and television audience information to account for the entire region.
