Football is not visual – Newspaper Kommersant No. 238 (7439) of 12/22/2022

The final match of the World Cup this year attracted less attention than all its finals since 2006. The non-participation of the Russian team, as well as the greater focus of Russians on news programs, have affected the decline in interest in the championship as a whole, market participants say. Experts also emphasize that only Match TV broadcast on TV. The channel itself considers the results successful.

Kommersant studied Mediascope data on watching the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Russia, the final part of which was held from November 20 to December 18 in Qatar. The broadcast of the match between Argentina and France on December 18 became the most rated. Its rating was 8.1% (the average number of people who watched the broadcast, as a percentage of the population of cities with more than 100,000 residents older than four years). The share of broadcast (as a percentage of the total TV audience) was 24.5%. The second place was taken by the match Morocco-Portugal on December 10 (4.3% and 14%), the third – France-Morocco on December 14 (4.1% and 17.3%).

It was not possible to break the records of previous years: moreover, all the final matches of the championships since 2006 had higher viewing rates (see table). The highest they predictably were at the final of the 2018 World Cup, which was held in Russia. The France-Croatia match, which was broadcast on Rossiya 1 on July 15, 2018, showed a rating of 16.2%, a share of 53.9%.

The only TV channel that broadcast the World Cup on TV in 2022 was Match TV. As a result, the channel improved its position in the top 20 in terms of the share of views per day: from 18th place in the period from September 1 to November 19, it rose to the fifth position during the World Cup (from November 20 to December 18). The share of “Match TV” from the entire audience of the Russian Federation (in cities over 100 thousand people) increased from 1.2% to 4.6%. At the same time, the shares of leading TV channels during the World Cup decreased: for Rossiya 1 – from 15.9% to 14.9%, for NTV – 9.2% to 8.9%, for Channel One – from 8, 9% to 7.5%.

“If our team was in Qatar, the interest would be higher, but still we are extremely pleased with the results at the group stage of the tournament, where, frankly, there were matches for a wide audience,” said Alexander Taschin, general producer of Match TV, to Kommersant. .- The World Cup, which took place in the Russian Federation, of course, excited almost every inhabitant of the country, but today the focus of the viewer is more on information programs. The top manager admits that Match TV “did not have hopes that it could beat the numbers of the previous championship.” According to him, the share of the TV channel from the beginning to the end of the game in the target audience (men from 14 to 59 years old in cities with a population of more than 100 thousand people) was 41.04%.

According to Match TV (based on Mediascope), the final of the World Cup in Russia was watched by approximately 18.2 million people, excluding the Internet. Over 1.4 million unique users watched the final meeting on the online platforms that rebroadcast the channel. Another 2 million watched the final at the Match TV venues, Alexander Taschin added. Mediascope did not provide data on Internet broadcasts of the World Cup.

This year’s viewing figures were affected by a combination of factors, including the absence of the Russian team at the championship, and a general decrease in the volume of entertainment content on federal TV, explains Kirill Tanaev, director of the Institute of Modern Media. “I think if the same final games of the World Cup were shown on Russia 1 or First, then the numbers would be very high. Of course, less than at the 2018 World Cup, but significantly higher than now, ”the expert believes. He emphasizes that the audience coverage of the largest TV channels and the powerful promo that accompanies such broadcasts would play a role. For Match TV, Mr. Tanaev clarifies, the current championship is a serious success, despite the fact that “objectively, it has significantly lower coverage than the leading TV channels.”

Valeria Lebedeva