In a country where viewership is benchmarked by cricket, the recently concluded FIFA World Cup achieved a record high by attracting 70 million online viewers, shedding the myth that the sport is popular only in certain pockets.As per Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN), 70 million viewers across India had tuned in to watch the World Cup on its digital over-the-top (OTT) player, SonyLIV . And while it is far below than the 202 million viewers that Hotstar claims for the Indian Premier League (IPL) this year, the viewership of FIFA World Cup is a big jump considering that India doesn’t even participate in the sport.“It has beaten our expectations,” an elated Uday Sodhi, head — digital business, SPN, said. “Taking into account the size of football audience in our country, 70 million viewers is a huge number. It re-emphasises that SonyLIV is at the forefront of football streaming.” Sodhi said on an average, viewers spent 15-16 minutes per match and the platform registered 2 million concurrent users. SonyLIV had roped in a total of 36 advertisers on board for the World Cup.Unsurprisingly, highest number of viewers logged in from Kolkata and Cochin, followed by Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Lucknow. “While high viewership from metros was likely, it is heartening to see high viewership coming from cities like Ahmedabad and Lucknow too. Favourable timings of matches coupled with high buzz created by our campaigns #ScreamLoud and SPN’s (Meri Doosri Country), natural buzz and full support from tech partner Akamai ensured that we were ready on time and were able to reach out to a large user base,” Sodhi explained.SonyLIV was streaming two separate feeds of the World Cup with 6 languages — one live feed without ads for paid subscribers, and second ad-supported feed for free, with a five minute delay.“Streaming a large scale tournament such as FIFA World Cup is not an easy task. It involves too many complexities including live insertion of ads for free feed, ensuring no ads in paid service. Though consumers will never know what all goes on in the background,” said Sandeep Reddy, country sales manager — media at Akamai. He added that SonyLIV was one of the top players for FIFA among the major broadcasters.