The 2018 FIFA World Cup kicked off on 14 June 2018 with pomp and glamour. British performing and recording artist Robbie Williams together with Russian singer, Aida Garifullina gave a resounding performance in sync with a colourful team of entertainers.  The opening ceremony was held in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, which also played host to the opening game of the tournament.

The Opening Ceremony

It is estimated that 5.4 million TV viewers in, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda watched the 1hr opening ceremony, televised live by FIFA partner broadcasters across the globe.

Nigeria had the highest viewers amongst the six countries that were surveyed, with 1.6 million viewers watching the opening ceremony.

Russia Vs Saudi Arabia

The first game of the 2018 FIFA World Cup was played between Group A’s Russia, the host nation, and Saudi Arabia at 1500hrs GMT. An estimated TV viewership of 7.9 million people in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda watched Russia score 5-0 against Saudi Arabia.

Kenya had the highest viewership of the game amongst the countries polled with 2.8 million viewers watching.

It is also observed that viewership increased across all markets polled once the opening ceremony ended, signalling more interest in the first game of 2018 FIFA World Cup and not the official opening ceremony.

A number of free to air channels across the world are broadcast partners for 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Highest Viewership By Channel

NTV Kenya had the highest viewership estimated at 2 million viewers, followed by NTA Nigeria with 1.3 million viewers. Kwese Free Sports who have exclusive broadcast rights to the tournament recorded 0.7 million viewers in Kenya and 0.5 million viewers in Uganda, looking at some of the stations that aired the opening game.

Second-day action sees the other Group A match between Africa’s Egypt and South America’s Uruguay kick off at 1200hrs GMT. Group B matches of yet another African representative Morocco and Iran follows at 1500h GMT and the day’s highlight game being former champions Spain facing off with European champions, Portugal at 1800h GMT.

GeoPoll will catch all the action and provide you with audience estimates on the 2018 FIFA World Cup, derived from the syndicated audience measurement product that is collected daily.

SOURCE: https://brandspurng.com/2018-fifa-world-cup-kick-off-here-are-the-african-tv-viewership-numbers-check-out-nigeria-geopoll/

"NTV Kenya had the highest viewership estimated at 2 million viewers, followed by NTA Nigeria with 1.3 million viewers."

"Nigeria had the highest viewers amongst the six countries that were surveyed, with 1.6 million viewers watching the opening ceremony."

Interesting details...