United with a beautiful game

Football is a universal sport. And every four years, football fanatics wait for the world biggest sporting extravaganza ' the FIFA World Cup.

The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War.

Off the 18 tournaments that have been held so far, seven national teams have won the title. Brazil holds the record of wining the Cup a record five times and alos a unique record of having played in every tournament.

Time Period: 11th June'10 ' 28th June'10

Amongst the teams, England is the most discussed team, followed by Brazil and Spain. But it seems that most of them have struck by the Germany's brilliance followed by Argentina, Brazil and Spain.

"England was loved and hated, but hardly ignored in Indian social media last month. The manner of their exit and the Lampard goal controversy was discussed widely. On sentiment, Germany has impressed one and all with their plays in this World Cup and it is no surprise that the blogosphere has nice things to say about them," Karthik Nagarajan, Associate Director, Online & IT Practice, The Nielsen Company.

In terms of viewership, it has already reached of 53 million -- with a 29 per cent reach since the games started on 11th June, 2010, to the pre-quarterfinal games, according to viewership data from TAM.

The highest television rating (TVR) was 1.93 per cent for the match between Portugal and Brazil played on 25th June 2010. Average TVR for the game was 0.65 for the 50 matches plus the opening ceremony of the Cup.

As expected the highest viewership has been in West Bengal with 3.04 average TVR, followed closely by Assam (3.01 avg. TVR) and Kerala (2.74 avg. TVR).