By IANS,
New Delhi : With Football World Cup fever gripping across the globe, majority of Indians fans will catch the action on television, says a survey released here Monday.
An online survey by Neilsen conducted in March found that a whopping 81 percent Indians fans will follow the live telecast of the game on TV.
Online articles and reports appear to be the next most preferred mode of following the game with 35 percent votes, followed by 34 percent on internet on mobile phones.
Online video clips (30 percent), online streaming (28 percent), radio (20 percent), online blogs/chat rooms/forums (18 percent), video clips and applications on mobile phones (both 14 percent) and podcasts (6 percent) were the other ways Indian respondents preffered to catch the action.
“It is interesting to note that increasingly Indians are using the digital medium to follow the sports and this could be a great opportunity for advertisers,” said Piyush Mathur, president (India), the Nielsen Company.
Around 15 percent of Indian fans surveyed intend to travel to South Africa to watch the games, the survey found.
Passion for the game aside, many a time football matches get embroiled in controversies on decisions taken by the match referees.
As per the survey, 73 percent Indians believe referees should be allowed to use television replays to make decisions during football matches.
The world is at a lesser agreement on this, 65 percent consumers globally think that replays should not be used for making decisions.
More than half the Indians surveyed (52 percent) consider a penalty shoot out the best way to decide a drawn match, 23 percent consider it inappropriate.
Globally, 35 percent consumers consider a penalty shoot out a good way to decide a tie.
The online survey was polled over 27,000 consumers in 55 countries throughout Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North America.