Tuesday 19 February 2013

Sports Fans Flow to TV for major sports events this week


This week has been an exciting period on television for sports fans. Flow’s  Advertising Intelligence (AI) Report, the first digitally based media intelligence report available in Jamaica, reveal that the broadcasts of Jamaica’s World Cup qualifying match against Mexico  on Wednesday, February 6th and the NFL  Super Bowl on Sunday, February 7th commanded high viewership on Flow’s digital cable television service.  

Supporters of the Reggae Boyz proudly watched the performance of the team in their match against Mexico at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, a venue that has previously challenged players due to the high 7,000 ft altitude. Our local footballers acquitted themselves well, to the extent that they even earned occasional cheers from the Mexican fans during the match. The end result of a nil all draw was better than anticipated result for Jamaica’s team at the start of their CONCACF Group of 6 qualifying round.

 Michael Look Tong, director of media services at Columbus Communications Jamaica Limited, operators of the Flow brand in Jamaica, said that viewership of TVJ’s broadcast of the Jamaica vs. Mexico match was exceptionally high, commanding an average of over 40% of viewers during the match.

“It was not unexpected that our customers would turn to TVJ for the broadcast of the Jamaica vs. Mexico match. The viewership of the match was approximately more than 3 times the normal viewership for any local station in that time band,” he said. “The numbers confirm the high interest in how the Reggae Boyz would face the challenge from the Mexican team.”

Sunday’s NFL Super Bowl contested by the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49’ers, with its spectacular half time show by Beyonce,  was among viewers’ leading choices that night with an average 13% share of viewers. That event was only temporarily exceeded by the major news broadcasts on both local channels and a highlight show of the Flow sponsored Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival on CVM.  

Viewers stuck with the Super Bowl broadcast even through the power outage that halted play for 35 minutes at the start of the 2nd half of the game to make it the leading choice from 9:00pm until after the post-game specials.

Look Tong explained that the aggregate data in Flow’s Advertising Intelligence Reports data is determined from a statistically significant random poll of set top boxes on Flow’s network at 30 minute intervals. 

The reports are available on a subscription basis to advertisers for use in planning their advertising schedules.