June 2006

The President of FIFA, Mr Sepp Blatter called India a key market with regards to soccer viewership and following as the nation gears up to witness the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™. The FIFA President stated that the soccer’s world governing body expected to overshoot the reach of 28.8 billion globally, witnessed during the last tournament in the forthcoming edition of 2006 FIFA World Cup™. The FIFA president known for his endeavour to enhance the global image of the game also lauded ESPN STAR Sports’ initiatives to promote the game in the country.

Mr Sepp Blatter said, “I am very pleasantly surprised with the huge interest in soccer in a cricket crazy nation like India. It is the glory of the soccer world cup, which has transcended, like in other countries, over the language and sports barriers. In addition, ESPN STAR Sports’ programming initiatives and the special effort to telecast the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ in the national language, Hindi will further increase the viewer-ship. I congratulate ESPN STAR Sports on all its plans to grow the popularity of soccer in India.”

Mr R C Venkateish, Managing Director, ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd said, “A phenomenal awareness has already been created around the FIFA World Cup™ in Germany. ESPN STAR Sports continues to make efforts to excite and involve consumers for the FIFA World Cup™. We have been building the football fever and would have showcased more than 200 hours of the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ related programming by the time we reach June 09. Our interactive marketing campaign continues to roll out to involve the viewers.”

We are confident that our telecast of the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ in Hindi will entertain viewers and help us in penetrating new markets for soccer. We expect to transfer and retain viewers to our Hindi telecast of the English Premier League after the 2006 FIFA World Cup™,” added Venkateish.

Soccer viewer-ship has been on the rise in India. The 2002 FIFA World Cup™ put soccer in a different league garnering ratings as high as 9.1 TVRs (among males, 15+, SEC A, B & C, C & S Households) which is comparable to top performing soaps and cricket ODIs. The Euro 2004 continued the growth and had a cumulative audience reach of 32.3 million viewers. This interest in soccer now touches even EPL which had a reach of 42.8 million for the season till date. This means that nearly 1 in 2 of every individual in Cable homes across India has sampled the EPL. The viewer-ship for English Premier League and the Spanish Primera Liga has been growing steadily in India. In the 04-05 season, in the TG of Males, SEC ABC, 15+ age, EPL reached a total of 65% of this TG (16,28,000 individuals), Spanish reached nearly 1 in 3 individuals in the same season.