The World Cup finals in Russia had the highest viewership in Sub-Saharan Africa of all matches, GeoPoll data shows. An average of 36% of all TV viewers in the 6 countries observed by GeoPoll (Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, and Rwanda) witnessed the fast-paced match which saw France beat Croatia to win its 2^nd World Cup title. Channels that had secured FIFA broadcast rights experienced the highest TV ratings recorded during the last one month, with some locking in up to 58% of all TV viewers in their respective countries.

Audience Ratings record highest increase
After witnessing the loss by England and Belgium to make it to the finals, the third-place match didn’t garner as much interest, drawing an average of just 20% of viewers. Despite a decline in viewership as seen in the semi-finals, where the average viewership was at 29% of all TV audiences, down from an average of 33% share during the quarterfinals, viewers of the final match shot up by 7%, with Kenya recording the highest share of TV viewers who watched as France took the trophy at 58%.

TV Ratings Skyrocket

TV ratings for the channels beaming the World Cup in Sub- Saharan Africa recorded the highest ratings during the final clash of football titans as the French team – Les Bleus –  secured their place in history.

As national broadcasters had secured broadcast rights to screen some of the matches, this saw a significant drop in audiences during the quarterfinals. However, they quickly regained their share of viewers of the game during the semifinals and an increase during the final match. The channels that gained significantly during finals were; Rwanda TV with a 31% share of TV viewers; TBC 1 in Tanzania with 25% share;  NTV in Kenya with a 32% share. Kwese Free Sports channel had an audience share of 15% in Ghana, 10% share in Nigeria and 17% share in Uganda respectively.

World Cup audience measurement insights report

The GeoPoll Audience Measurement service has been running in 6 African countries namely Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania and Rwanda, collecting TV ratings and viewership numbers throughout the World Cup season. Contact us now to get a copy of our World Cup audience measurement insights report with a breakdown on:

• The number of people who watched World Cup games
• Viewership numbers broken down by age and gender
• Comparison of game watching across countries
• Game viewership by tournament round
• TV ratings during the World Cup season

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Through our audience measurement service which runs in six countries in Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda), we analyzed the TV viewership of all the matches where African teams were playing as well as other key matches played from 15^th – 24^th June.

Most & Least Watched Matches

Well done Nigeria ??? that was a tough match and Argentina ?? congratulations #WorldCup18 #NigeriaArgentina pic.twitter.com/0fGeezSJf1

— jules tata (@jules_tata) June 26, 2018

The matches that drew the most viewership among TV viewers in the 6 African countries were when Nigeria played against Iceland beating them 2:0. Rwanda TV ranked the top in audience share at 45% during the match between Nigeria Vs Iceland and in all the other matches.

In Ghana, 54% of the total TV audience watched the match between Egypt Vs Russia, the highest viewership in that period. The next most-watched match was Argentina Vs Croatia whose viewership drew 42% of all TV watching audience in the country. The least watched match at 21% of the Ghanaian TV viewing audience was when Spain played against Portugal.

In Kenya, the game between Argentina and Croatia had the highest share of all TV viewers at 48% followed in audience numbers by the Egypt vs Uruguay match with 43% of viewers. At 26% total viewership, Morocco vs Portugal was the least watched by Kenyan TV viewers.

In Nigeria, most TV viewers who were following the World Cup in 12 out of the 36 states from 15^th – 24^th June watched Nigeria vs Iceland game which had a 41% total audience share. The least watched match was when Morocco played against Portugal. The total audience share was 9%.

In Uganda, Nigeria vs Croatia match drew the highest TV audience share at 35% with only 12% of all TV viewers watching Germany vs Sweden game.

In Rwanda, the match with the highest total TV audience share was Morocco vs Portugal at 54%. The high share percentage may be attributed to the national broadcaster, Rwanda TV, acquiring the rights to screen all the matches hence the high viewership. The least watched game with only 29% tuning in was when Senegal played against Japan.

Finally, in Tanzania, most TV viewers watched Morocco vs Portugal which took 43% of all TV viewers in the country. The Senegal vs Poland game drew the least viewers at 24%.

Channels with the highest audience share

In Ghana, GTV had the highest audience share by channel of 25%. This was during the match between Egypt Vs Russia. NTV achieved the most audience shares in Kenya at 23%, 22%, and 21% during matches between Egypt Vs Uruguay, Arg Vs Croatia and Nigera Vs Croatia respectively.

SuperSport had the highest share of all TV viewers by channel in Nigeria and in Uganda. In Nigeria, SuperSport commanded 26% of all audience share, the highest among all channels showing the World Cup matches. The share percentage was in 12 of the 36 states. This was during the match between the Nigerian home team, the Super Eagles and Iceland. In Uganda, SuperSport attained the highest audience share in most of the matches played having its peak during the match between Nigeria and Croatia with 24% audience share.

Rwanda TV is ranked the top in audience share in all the matches during the group stage. Its peak of 45% share was during the match between Nigeria Vs Iceland. TBC1 in Tanzania achieved the highest audience share in most of the matches played with 28% leading during the match between Morocco Vs Portugal.

Knockout Stage

The last three weeks have had the most shocking moments for football fans world over. Germany, the defending World Cup champions were eliminated in group stage. As reported by The Guardian, the last time this happened was 80 years ago in 1938.

With all African teams out of the World Cup, it will be interesting to see how this will affect the TV viewership numbers across the continent.

GeoPoll has been and continues to collect media audience measurement data throughout the World Cup in Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Nigeria, Uganda, and Rwanda. As we continue to share with you the viewership highlights, Contact us now to get these deeper insights into the World Cup viewership in Africa or to sign up for our exclusive World Cup offer!

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Nigeria Vs Argentina: Viewership by TV audience share

Over 12% of all TV viewers from 12 of the 36 states in Nigeria tuned in with a palpable hope for their homegrown heroes. The Super Eagles were once again confronting their all-time rivals Argentina. For the Nigeria viewers, Super Sport was the channel of choice. The DSTV channel had the largest share of TV viewers at 6.6% followed by Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) at 5.7%.

In Kenya, over 40% of all TV viewing audiences were glued to this match with NTV and Kwese having the highest channel share at 18% and 15% respectively.

In Uganda, 22% of all TV audiences tuned in with UBC having the highest TV ratings among other World Cup channels at 8%. Rwanda’s viewership of the match was at 55% with Rwanda TV taking Lion’s share. Finally, in Tanzania, 23% switched from watching other channels with a majority preferring TBC1 at 16% channel share to watch that final match for Nigeria.

Most Watched Nigeria Game in the World Cup

An average of 35% of all TV viewers watching this match in which Nigeria beat Iceland 2:0.  That match was also the most watched by Nigerians in 12 out of the 36 states in which GeoPoll’s audience measurement service runs. In Nigeria, over 40% of all TV viewing audiences watched the match with Supersport having the highest share of channel at 35%

Senegal & Tunisia: Africa’s Chances

With the elimination of Nigeria, Morocco, and Egypt at the group stage, the only remaining African teams that will be playing later today (29^th June) are Senegal and Tunisia.

In this last day of the group matches, Senegal has emerged as the continents underdogs. Tonight they will be facing Colombia as Tunisia meet Panama in the last group matches.

GeoPoll has been and continues to collect media audience measurement data throughout the World Cup in Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Nigeria, Uganda, and Rwanda.  Contact us now to get these deeper insights into the World Cup viewership in Africa or to sign up for our exclusive World Cup offer!

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The Opening Ceremony

The 1hr opening ceremony was televised live by FIFA partner broadcasters across the globe, with viewers across Africa tuning in. GeoPoll examined audience share for select stations airing the opening ceremony and first match in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. Interest in the opening ceremony was high in Kenya and Tanzania, likely due to the fact that it was aired starting at 1600 in these countries, while it was earlier in the day in West Africa. In Kenya, Kwese Free Sports had a 14% share of all TV viewers during the opening ceremony, while in Tanzania TBC had the most audience, at 22% of TV viewers.

Russia Vs Saudi Arabia

The first game of the 2018 FIFA World Cup was played between Group A’s Russia, the host nation, and Saudi Arabia at 1500hrs GMT. In Kenya, peak viewership came at 1930, in the middle of the game, when over 38% of TV viewers were tuned into the matches on various channels. In Tanzania at the same time, over 32% of TV viewers were watching. Ghana also saw an increase of viewers from the opening ceremony to the first match, with a share of over 27% of viewers. Viewership in Nigeria was also at over 27% of total TV viewers.

In all countries, we can observe an increase in viewership during the game when compared to the opening ceremony. This signals more interest in the first game of 2018 FIFA World Cup and not the official opening ceremony.

A number of free to air channels and pay TV channels across the world are broadcast partners for 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Highest Viewership by Channel

NTV Kenya had the highest viewership in Kenya, capturing over 30% of TV audience in Kenya during the time of the match. This is an increase of over 400% of NTV’s typical audience during the same time period. Kwese Free Sports had a 13% audience share prior to the start of the match in Kenya, which dropped during the airing of the game. In Nigeria, NTA Nigeria and SuperSport also saw an increased audience size during the game, with SuperSport at 14% of all viewers and NTA at 13%. Tanzania saw TBC dominating audience share of the channels showing the games.

Second-day action sees the other Group A match between Africa’s Egypt and South America’s Uruguay kick off at 1200hrs GMT. Group B matches of yet another African representative Morocco and Iran follows at 1500h GMT and the day’s highlight game being former champions Spain facing off with European champions, Portugal at 1800h GMT.

GeoPoll will catch all the action and provide you with audience estimates on the 2018 FIFA World Cup, derived from the syndicated audience measurement product that is collected daily.

Our Exclusive World Cup Subscription Offer

We have a special world cup subscription offer for 6 countries (Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Nigeria, Uganda and Rwanda) Sign up and get access to our online TV viewership data portal for the two months (June and July) during which the matches will be played. The portal gives you real-time access to the media consumption data collected daily.

As part of the package, you will receive a weekly World Cup audience measurement insights report with a breakdown on:

• The number of people watching World Cup games
• Viewership numbers broken down by age and gender
• Comparison of game watching across countries
• Game viewership by tournament round

As for your Ad campaign evaluation, our post-campaign evaluation tool will give you the data on how your ad campaigns are doing, in terms of reach and the impact they’ve had on the target audience. This would be a good way to accurately confirm the return on investment on every campaign.

Contact us now to sign up for our exclusive World Cup offer!

Note: This blog article focuses on certain channels and countries airing the World Cup. In Nigeria, data is based on information from select states.

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Across all 5 nations, the first semifinal was viewed by 22.5 million, while the second was viewed by 18.4 million. The difference was especially pronounced in Kenya, where 3.7 million watched the Brazil-Germany match, and only 2.0 million watched Netherlands-Argentina. 3.7 million represents about 8% of the total Kenyan population, and 17.8% of Kenyan adults who are regular media consumers. 

Below is a graph taken from our Audience Measurement Service, which shows viewership numbers in Kenya. KBC, not normally a popular prime-time channel, is the only channel airing games in Kenya, and as you can see, the peaks are dramatic. The full semifinal numbers, broken down by country, are below.

We have also been asking users in 10 African nations who they think will win the World Cup every day, which enables us to see a wider view of African perceptions of the games. The below shows how perceptions have changed over time: most notably, until Brazil’s semifinal defeat over 30% of respondents indicated they believed Brazil would win. Africans also had a higher perception of the Netherlands than Argentina, although ever since Germany showed their strength in the first game against Ghana, Germany has also been a popular choice to win the entire World Cup. 

Semifinal viewership numbers: 

Germany-Brazil 
Total: 22,455,000
Ghana: 2,435,000
Kenya: 3,725,000
Nigeria: 12,037,000
Tanzania: 3,331,000
Uganda: 927,000

Argentina-Netherlands:
Total: 18,431,000
Ghana: 2,525,000
Kenya: 2,016,000
Nigeria: 10,501,000
Tanzania: 2,621,000
Uganda: 956,000

Want to sign up for a trial of our Audience Measurement Service and have access to the numbers presented here and interactive dashboard? 

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It is no surprise that World Cup viewers polled in these five countries were most tuned in during games involving African nations, in particular Nigeria. When this West African team played, between 15 million and 25.1 million viewers were tuned in, with the highest viewership occurring during the first Nigeria game played, against Iran. The second most watched game also involved an African team, Ghana, when 24.5 million tuned in across the 5 countries to watch their loss to Germany.

Although Africans were most tuned in for home teams, GeoPoll’s data demonstrates the popularity of several international teams, especially now that all African nations have been eliminated. Germany has had high viewership throughout, partly due to their strong standing in the tournament, and because they played two African teams: Ghana and Algeria. German games have drawn between 14.8 and 24.5 million adult viewers in Africa, for an average viewership of 20.5 million through the Round of 16.  By comparison, the USA only had an average of 14.6 million viewers across their games. Brazil has also been a popular team to watch: 24.9 million tuned in to their match against Chile.

Gender trends in African viewership

In general, we have found that more males are watching the games than females. Across all games and countries through the Round of 16, the gender split has been 67% male to 33% female. Female viewership has not exceeded a total of 10.5 million across all 5 countries, and no games had more female than male viewers, but we have seen some interesting patterns when examining what games females are most likely to watch.  While males have consistently tuned in to games, females have tuned in most to games involving African teams. The four games with the highest female viewership numbers all involved African teams, and the highest female viewed game was Germany-Ghana, which drew 14.3 million males and 10.3 million females.  Below is a chart showing the male/female breakdown from June 20th to June 30th. Click here for more gender details. 

America’s interest in soccer compared to Africa

Americans are slowly developing a love for football, or soccer, as it is known in the states. This World Cup has experienced record-breaking viewership numbers in the US. ESPN reported 16.9 million Americans watched the USA- Belgium game in the Round of 16, and even more tuned in for the USA-Portugal game: 18.2 million American’s saw USA tie the game 2-2. This has been reported as the most non-football viewed ESPN telecast, which is quite an achievement for soccer in the US.

However, similarly to African viewers showing loyalty to their own nations, this record-breaking viewership has been most prominent for US games. Although the Brazil-Chile game was the highest rated non-US World Cup game ever recorded, it only drew 6.1 million US viewers. That’s just under 2% of the total US population. By comparison, about 7.7% of the total combined populations of Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, and Tanzania tuned in according to GeoPoll’s numbers, which do not measure children. American love for the sport is growing, but does not compare to the passion these African nations have demonstrated for the World Cup.

As the final games are played, we will continue to measure viewership numbers, gender breakdowns, and more. So far, audience sizes have been impressive, and with only a few games left we imagine they will stay high. Although Africans have been loyal to their home teams, this quadrennial event has shown impressive audience sizes throughout, and with only a few games left we imagine they will remain high.  Stay tuned for semi-final and final viewership numbers, and a summary of World Cup viewing once it’s all over!

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3 million Ghanaian viewers tuned in to see their loss on Thursday, down from the 3.7 million who watched the crucial Ghana-Germany game. Since then, viewership of World Cup matches in Ghana has gone down, although audience size during World Cup games remains higher than average. So far, at most 2.1 million have tuned in to the Round of 16 games in Ghana.  Below you can see Ghanaian viewership over time.  As demonstrated, Ghana viewership has gone down as the World Cup has progressed, with notable exceptions during Ghana’s own matches. 

We have also measured viewership across Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, and Tanzania, and over the past few days of play found that the Nigeria-France and Brazil-Chile games have been most popular. 23.7 million adults across the 5 countries watched Nigeria lose to France, and even more watched the Brazil-Chile game on Saturday: 24.9 million tuned in to that match.  On Sunday, the most popular match was Netherlands-Mexico, which drew 20.1 million.  We will release more in-depth insights on the most popular teams and matches in the next few days, and make sure to keep following us on twitter @GeoPoll for daily viewership updates! 

To get daily access to this data, sign up for a trial of our Audience Measurement Service:

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As shown in the chart below, two teams have begun to stand out from the crowd in terms of their perceived chances of winning the World Cup. From the beginning, our survey respondents across Africa thought Brazil was likely to win, but as demonstrated below, Germany also became a popular answer after they won their game against Portugal decisively on the 16th of June: on the 17th, many more respondents chose Germany as their tournament winner.  Respondents lost some confidence in Brazil after their 0-0 tie with Mexico on the 17th, but regained it after their 4-1 win against Cameroon.

Another interesting finding shows that, while 18% of users across Africa said they thought Ghana would win on the first day of matches, that number quickly went down. With the Rroup of 16 teams now decided, we will be even more curious to see what results show during the next round of play! 

Interested in conducting a survey like this one? 

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The Ghana-Germany game aired at 7pm Ghana time on Saturday, and was viewed by over 3.7 million adult Ghanaians, a significant increase from the first game, viewed by 2.4 million adult Ghanaians.  This also made the Ghana-Germany game the most watched game in Ghana up until now, and the most viewed event in Ghana since GeoPoll started tracking TV viewership in April.

Other countries in Africa were also gripped by the Ghana-Germany game: in total, over 24.5 Million adults from Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania watched the game, making it the second most popular game in those countries overall, behind only the opening Nigeria game.

In Nigeria, 15 million adults watched the Ghana-Germany, game, while only 10.6 million remained to watch Nigeria play Bosnia & Herzegovina. Viewership declined across all countries after the Ghana game ended on Saturday: in total 15 million watched the first half hour of the Nigeria game, down over 9 million from the peak Ghana game viewership. 

Overall, GeoPoll’s viewership numbers for the first round of games has confirmed the popularity of soccer across Africa. In the 5 countries surveyed viewership for the World Cup has been high, no matter what teams are playing. The earliest games have had particularly high viewership even when African teams were not playing: since the start of the World Cup, at least 17.5 million adults across Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Nigeria have watched part of the first game played each day.  This is likely because later games go well into the night; in Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya the final match of each day (up until this week when games are played concurrently) has not started until 1am local time. 

Below are some more stats on the percentage of total adult TV viewers who watched the Ghana-Germany match in each country.  GeoPoll determines the number of adult TV viewers by asking GeoPoll members age 15+ if they have watched television in the past 30 days before adding them to our Audience Measurement panel.  In Nigeria, for example, out of an estimated total adult population of 100.6 million, GeoPoll has determined that 73.4 million are TV viewers. 

For insights on television ratings, channel share, and audience demographics, click below:

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The below findings are compiled from 10 countries: Benin, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. Overall, 36% of respondents think Brazil will win, followed by Germany at 11%.  Only 7% and 8% thought Ghana and Nigeria will win, respectively. 

Looking to conduct your own custom surveys? 

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