AFF Suzuki Cup 2010 draws record 192 million viewers

The AFF Suzuki Cup saw a 32 per cent increase from the 2008 edition. The audience represents ratings on broadcasters RCTI in Indonesia, RTM in Malaysia, ABS-CBN in the Philippines, MediaCorp in Singapore, BBTV in Thailand, VTV in Vietnam and ESPN Star Sports’ regional platform.

The two final leg matches between Indonesia and Malaysia saw an average of 15 million Indonesians watching both games on RCTI, more than twice the number of the highest-rated FIFA World Cup 2010 match in the country, according to Nielsen.

The second leg final alone generated a 79 per cent market share while the second leg semi-final is RCTI’s highest rated programme of all time with a market share of 82 per cent. It is also the largest viewing audience ever recorded in a single market, in the history of the competition.

Vietnam delivered the second largest viewership market after Indonesia with a total audience of 74.5 million.

In Malaysia, national free-to-air broadcaster RTM recorded shares of 40.3 per cent and 48.4 per cent, respectively, for each of the two final leg matches. The total audience reached in the territory saw an eight-fold increase from the previous tournament.

The television audiences were complemented by live attendances of nearly 800,000.

“Viewership has grown more than ten-fold since the event was first launched in 1996 and no other international sporting event has so far matched the audiences reached in some of these key Asean markets. The AFF Suzuki Cup 2010 has not only delivered top class football to fans around the region, but it has also provided our marketing and broadcast partners an exceptional platform to reach consumers,” said Ian Mathie, senior vice-president, Football, Asean, Australia and South Asia, World Sport Group, the exclusive marketing partner of the Asean Football Federation.

The event also reached nearly two million fans on its official website Affsuzukicup.com while 193,172 fans interacted with each other through the event’s facebook page. Additionally, there were some 1.7 million views of the 35 videos featuring AFF Suzuki Cup 2010 action on YouTube.