RUSSIA 2018 COVERAGE: Colombia and Japan can count on support from significant TV audiences back home

 

With Group H finally in action, the first round of Group Stage matches at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ was completed on Tuesday. The participating teams' home TV audiences continued to give the strongest showing. In the evening kick-off, hosts Russia played their second game of the competition, against Egypt in St Petersburg, and built on the strong rating from the Opening Match.
Match Day 6: Poland v. Senegal, Colombia v. Japan, Russia v. Egypt

• The primetime broadcast of Russia v. Egypt on RTR's free-to-air channel Russia 1 delivered a strong rating of 15.7% (TVR; equivalent to a national audience of over 20 million). It became the most-watched broadcast of the year so far, surpassing opener Russia v. Saudi Arabia (14.1% TVR) as the host country's top audience of 2018. Nearly half of all Russians watching TV at the time were tuned in to the broadcast, producing a share of 47.2%. Source: RTR
• Colombia's first-round match against Japan was simulcast live at 07:00 (local time) by two channels: Caracol and RCN. Caracol's coverage alone became the most-watched television broadcast (any genre) of the year to date with a TV rating (TVR) of 20.57%, equivalent to 9.14 million viewers. RCN's coverage gained a TVR of 5.66%, equivalent to a further 2.51 million viewers. The calculated combined audience was 11.65 million viewers, just under the 26.60% TVR (equivalent to 11.81 million viewers) for the Brazil v. Colombia quarter-final at the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™. Source: Publicis Colombia
• A 63.79% share of primetime TV viewers in Japan tuned in to support their national team in the impressive 2-1 opening win over Colombia. NHK's average audience of 36.62 million was higher than any for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ (34.07 million (26.7% rating) for NHK's coverage of Côte d'Ivoire v. Japan). This was higher than any programme broadcast on Japanese television in 2017. Source: NHK
• A combined average audience of 11.13 million followed the early-evening live broadcast (17:00 local time) of Poland v. Senegal on TVP1/TVP Sport. TVP1's coverage recorded an average audience of 9.28 million viewers, representing 26.15% (TVR) of all Polish television viewers, and a share of 65.1%. A further 1.85 million viewers watched the match on pay-TV channel TVP Sport (5.2% TVR) generating a share of 13.0%. In fact, it was the highest FIFA World Cup™ audience in Poland since the 1998 FIFA World Cup™ Final (13.8 million viewers, 40.0% rating, 78% share). Source: EBU

Note: Unless specifically referenced, these figures are preliminary and do not include digital streaming or out-of-home viewing. FIFA's final audience report, available after the competition, will include audiences from all markets across all match days.

FIFA's Digital channels top the charts

• FIFA App top in over 100 countries
• FIFA’s social media accounts gain most followers
• FIFA.com the top football website; best platform for World Cup games

FIFA World Cup™ fans have helped FIFA top the digital league tables during the first round of matches at Russia 2018. The outstanding figures from the opening week are based on four main principles:
Inform
FIFA’s innovative coverage has pushed the FIFA App to the top of the charts in over 100 countries. Our 32 Team Reporters, followed by more than 200,000 fans across 16 languages on Twitter, have continuously fed the daily Live Blogs - with a dedicated blog for every game of the tournament - leading to 60 million visits. These astonishing numbers have seen FIFA.com climb above the rest of the world’s footballing websites to reach the No1 spot.
Entertain
As well as enjoying the exhilarating matches on the pitch, fans have also loved the engaging games and experiences on FIFA’s digital platforms. From the Budweiser Man of the Match voting to the McDonald’s FIFA World Cup™ Fantasy, 10 million players have engaged in FIFA’s Fan Zone.
Connect
Honouring our digital claim ‘Share it!’, FIFA’s social channels have experienced a massive growth in followers. More than 4 million new fans have joined the official World Cup accounts of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, VKontakte and Weibo, putting FIFA ahead of all 32 team accounts. The number of followers of the official FIFA World Cup Instagram account alone has increased by more than 50 per cent over the last year.
Support
A new initiative has also seen the channels talking directly with fans, helping visitors to Russia get the most out of their trips. A new way of innovative storytelling, our visual stories, also provides better and easier access to FIFA’s unique content in short-form, while a match report for every game has been made available in International Sign Language.
More information on FIFA.com

Disciplinary update – 23 June 2018

The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has sanctioned the Polish Football Association with a fine of CHF 10,000 and a warning for the display of a political and offensive banner by Polish fans during the match played between Poland and Senegal.
The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has opened disciplinary proceedings against the Argentina FA and the Croatia FA for several crowd disturbance incidents involving their respective fans during the match played between Argentina and Croatia.
The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has opened disciplinary proceedings against the Swiss players Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri for their goal celebration during the match Switzerland vs. Serbia. In relation to the same match, disciplinary proceedings have been opened against the Serbian FA for crowd disturbance and the display of political and offensive messages by Serbian fans. Furthermore, a preliminary investigation has been opened against the coach of the Serbian national team Mladen Krstajic for alleged statements made in the aftermath of the said match.
Background information on disciplinary matters
The following applies to cautions and expulsions imposed during the final competition of the 2018 FIFA World Cup:
CautionSingle yellow cards will be cancelled after quarter-finals.
Suspension as a consequence of two cautions imposed during different matchesIf a player receives two cautions during two different matches, he will automatically be suspended from his team’s following match.
ExpulsionsIf a player is sent off as a result of a direct or indirect red card, he will automatically be suspended from his team’s following match. In addition, further sanctions (i.e. additional suspensions, fine, etc.) may be imposed.
For further details, please see circular number 8.