Second in popularity only to the FIFA World Cup, The UEFA European Championship 2016 garnered a total Indian TV audience of 50.1 million viewers for the group matches in the first two weeks of the tournament.
Kick-started on 11th June, the championship saw a consistent TV viewership during the two weeks.
The tournament's TV viewership witnessed a peak on 15th June with 8.2 million viewers. The day saw its highest TV viewership during the 9:30 PM to 11:30 PM match played between Romania and Switzerland. The match experienced its highest TV viewership from 10:00 PM to 10:30 PM with 3.21 million viewers.
The channels which aired the championship’s live telecast experienced a drastic rise in their TV viewership: the channels airing in English experienced a 4.8x rise compared to the previous week, whereas the channel which airs in Hindi experienced a 1.8x rise.
West Bengal, being the hub of Indian football, had the highest share of 17.8% of the total TV audience for the championship telecast. Maharashtra follows with a 10.8% share.
Through ZAPR's TV viewership data, we could also identify the general TV viewing habits of people who watched UEFA Euro 2016. The viewers of UEFA watched a great deal of Hindi entertainment shows alongside sports on TV.
This year sees the most number of countries playing in the history of the championship. The tournament's longer duration and wider fan base could translate to larger TV audiences and a greater potential for brands to reach out to them.