The World Cup comes once in every four years and with it excitement galore for football fans. During this time even those who don’t normally watch football find themselves sucked into the game if only so as to fit in. On my part, I have not been keen on football since the team that I happen to support have taken the title of perennial losers. However, this year’s world cup has made me start watching football again as it has not been short of excitement as the big names are being constantly whooped by teams that were previously considered underdogs. I mean who would have thought that the German machine would be sent home my South Korea? Or that Portugal would be sent home so early by Uruguay?
Other than just the excitement of watching the various countries battle it out on who will away with the title of best football country in the world. The World Cup comes with a windfall for the various parties involved. Top on the list are the Tv stations acquire the rights to showcase this football bonanza, this is because the World Cup manages to draw audiences who would not normally watch the Tv stations and with it advertisers. Other beneficiaries are betting companies and the way this World Cup has become unpredictable with big teams are losing, I am sure that they are laughing all the way to the bank.
In Kenya, NTV acquired the rights to showcase the World Cup in Kenya from Kwese and this has helped them grow their audience tremendously during this period. A recent poll by GeoPoll indicated that NTV Kenya had the highest viewership In Kenya during this period after capturing over 30% of the Tv audience during the matches. This was an increase of over 400% of NTV’s typical audience during the same period.
According to GeoPoll, NTV has had the highest Share of Voice (SOV) among Tv stations during the periods in which the matches were showing. This has been due to KOT discussing the matches on timeline as they progress. Search for the term NTV in relation to the World Cup has also spiked during this period.
GeoPoll Share of Voice Report
The conclusion that I can draw from the GeoPoll report is that basically, content is king. When you put good and relevant content on your platform, the audience will take notice and respond accordingly. The World Cup has made individuals who would not normally sit down to watch Tv, actually start following the World Cup religiously. Also the fact that social media complements the traditional media, in the past the talk has been that social/digital media has been eating into the traditional media’s market share. However, from the report we can see that social media can actually complement the traditional media.