Football edges out glitzy Indian soap

New Delhi - India may be languishing at the 117th place in FIFA rankings but that hasn't stopped the soccer World Cup from hogging eyeballs, snatching away TV viewership from soap operas, comedy shows and even regional entertainment.

'A few years ago we were not even bothered about watching football but now the mania is quite high. The globalisation effect, the popularity of sports, including niche sports like Formula-1, have captured a sizeable chunk of TV viewership,' said Shubhagat Bhattacharya, senior manager of AC Nielsen.

'For the last three weeks, hundreds of thousands of people in India have been watching the World Cup during prime time. As a result, soap operas and other prime time entertainment shows are losing their viewership,' Bhattacharya told IANS.

He said Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, Michael Ballack, Luis Figo and Lukas Podolski were no more mere football players.

'They have a larger than life stature and have considerable influence on public life. And when it's the World Cup, the influence is overwhelming,' he added.

According to TAM Media Research, there has been a five percent decline in the viewership of Hindi soap operas and a four percent decrease in the regional entertainment segment since June 9 when the football tournament began.

Sports channels have gained over 10 percent viewership during the period and this was observed in all the metros, including Delhi.

'Hindi serials are slowly losing popularity because of their meandering plot and it's worth it if people are not watching them in favour of World Cup football,' said Poulomi Sharma, an advertisement professional.

Sharma, an avid football fan herself, said since the matches are happening between 8.30 p.m. and 12.30 a.m., they were eating into the common entertainment time.

'The World cup is once a four-year phenomena and everyone wants to get the action right on time.'

'A lot of my friends are regular viewers of popular Ekta Kapoor serials but for the last few days, they have only been watching football matches,' she said adding that Brazil should win the cup this time too!