World Cup figures reach TV goals

Though its figures pale in comparison to rugby, television executives are happy with viewer numbers for the football World Cup.

An average 12,800 fans have tuned in to matches broadcast on Sky TV since the competition began, with the largest numbers watching the Australia-Croatia match at on June 23.

A total of 47,900 fans caught that clash.

Sky communications manager Elaine Koller said Sky was pleased with the "solid" number of subscribers watching the competition, despite the fact it attracted a "niche market".

Viewer numbers were "slightly down" on the previous World Cup, which was held in Japan, but that was blamed on the less forgiving time differences for this year's Germany-hosted event, she said.

The statistics are drawn from a total possible viewing audience of 3,816,908.

Over at the state broadcaster, Television New Zealand, an average 81,560 have tuned in to the cup for the station's live games and highlights packages.

TVNZ spokeswoman Megan Richards said the figures were "pretty much as expected", but were likely to climb as it approached the business end of the competition.

The greatest number of viewers - 270,300 - were watching on June 17, though TVNZ is at a loss to explain the figures. Argentina and Holland were among the teams playing.

It was possible the healthy viewer numbers were due to bad weather, Ms Richards said.