According to Geopoll’s World Cup 2018 Africa Viewership, NTV Kenya had the highest viewership in the country, capturing over 30% of TV audience in Kenya during the first match. This is an increase of over 400% of NTV’s typical audience during the same time period.
The media house had the highest Share of Voice analysis (SOV) during the days African matches aired, June 19 being the highest when Senegal and Egypt played.
The report adds that, TV mentions on social media have risen by over 48 per cent in the last 7 days largely driven by World Cup discussions.
“Searches for the term ‘NTV’ on Google has registered a spike today. Other Google searches related to NTV are ‘world cup streaming free’ and ‘world cup live streaming free’ “
The match between Nigeria and Argentina on Tuesday 26th June 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.
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.” adds the Geopoll report
The media house has evidently defied all odds despite a recent backlash on social media with many shocked that NTV would not air some highly anticipated matches such as the draw between Spain-Portugal.
NTV live streaming services have enabled those without TVs access viewing of world cup matches which is backed by the high level of smartphones penetration rate which recently surpassed the 40 million mobile subscriptions in 2017 and stands at 41 million (+3 per cent), with reach at 90.4 per cent of the adult population.
“The re-runs have made it possible for those of that are not able to watch/miss out on their preferred matches” said a viewer.
Nation Media Group signed an agreement with Africa’s largest free to air channel Kwese Free Sports to broadcast 32 matches of the world’s premier sports event live beating other contenders, including national broadcaster KBC, to clinch the lucrative rights to show the World Cup matches in Kenya.
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.
