Thursday 22 March 2007

Digging to China


I have been pondering this week, how big a television audience the Australia vs China friendly match will draw. I am not talking about Foxtel Subscribers. I am thinking more about how many Asian viewers there will be. According to this guy's figures, it could be a bucket-load.


So lets start here....8.28 billion Asians watched the world cup. Now of course thats cumulative, over the course of the largest single sporting event in the world.


After about 10 minutes of hunting around on this interwebby thing, I found this page, which floored me...


There are 250 million regular football fans in China.


In fact, this is such a nugget, its worth a copy and paste:


China has more television sets than any other country in the world, which means that it represents a huge and growing audience for football.





These television sets are being well and truly used. 400 million Chinese watched the China versus Brazil match at the 2002 FIFA World Cup™. In total, China delivered a cumulative viewing audience of almost six billion to this event, representing 20% of the global audience.



Over 50% of the population in major Chinese cities chooses football as its favourite sport. Team China matches have an average TV rating of at least 30%. With at least six leading Chinese players now playing for European clubs, the standard of play is rising sharply and audience interest is keeping pace.


Okay thats good. Its time to get the old calculator out...


Lets see, if the football viewing population of China is potentially 250 million, and team China Matches average a TV rating of at least 30% , then thats 75 million people.


No that cant be right.....


250 000 000 x 0.30 = 75 000 000


That is right.


So nearly four times the entire population of Australia will tune in to watch the game on Saturday night in China.


Thats ridiculous.