(Sports)Roundup: AFC seeing popular Asian Cup in Australia

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has been impressed by the television viewership figures for the group stages of the 2015 Asian Cup, especially the record number in China, Japan and South Korea.

In a press release on Thursday, the AFC said figures in the three countries have hit record numbers while the number of spectators has reached 395,892.

In China, audiences grew as the national team advanced through the group stage with three consecutive wins.

For China's first match against Saudi Arabia, the average viewership (the number of people watching the match at any given time) for the live broadcast on CCTV-5 was 11.16 million and the reach (the number of people who watched the match for any time at all) was 39.19 million.

For the next match against Uzbekistan, the average viewership for the live broadcast on CCTV-5 was 13.54 million. The peak viewing was 23.70 million. The reach was 44.02 million.

The cumulative average viewership in China for China matches at Australia 2015 (27.5 million, including CCTV-5 and the regional broadcasters) was already higher, after two matches, than the cumulative average viewership in China for all the China matches at Qatar 2011 (23.8 million).

For China's third match against Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the average viewership for the live broadcast on CCTV-5 was 16.17 million, which represented a 19 percent increase over that of the previous match.

The peak viewing was 30 million. The reach was 52.4 million. The game, which was broadcast from 17:00 to 18:45 local time in China, scored the highest TV audience for the pre prime-time timeslot since January 2013 when tennis star Li Na played the final of the Australian Open.

"Such high TV audiences for a football game are rare in China, and usually happen only during prime-time. It has been many years, actually more than a decade, since the National Team has attracted such attention on TV," said Pierre Justo, Director of CSM Media Research Sports & Media Dpt, who compiled the data.

"The good thing now is that China won't probably have to wait long to see even higher ratings on Thursday when China will challenge Australia in the hope of reaching the semi-final of the AFC Asian Cup," Justo added.

Total average viewership in the homeland of reigning champions Japan approached 50 million for the three matches on leading national broadcaster TV Asahi.

Audiences also grew in South Korea as their national team progressed through the group stage. Their third match between South Korea and Australia achieved an average viewership of 4.57 million on national broadcaster MBC, representing 10 percent of the population.

Even in DPRK, the viewership has also been high. Around 658,000 people watched DPRK's opening match with Uzbekistan.

In Australia where the tournament is staged, the turnout of fans at the stadiums has also been outstanding.

So far 24 games have been played and it is forecast that the attendance figures will reach 500,000 after the quarterfinals.

"Australians have embraced the AFC Asian Cup in record numbers and it's great to see the rest of Asia watch the tournament with the same excitement," Local Organising Committee CEO Michael Brown said.

"The eyes of Asia and the world are on Australia and the wonderful football being played here."

There have also been incredible levels of activity on the AFC Asian Cup Social Media platforms since January 4.

The official Twitter feed #AC2015, which is running in five different languages has reached over 1.82 billion, making it one of the most talked about Asian football events in history.

Video plays on YouTube have clocked over 3.3 million, with over 5 million minutes watched.

Followers on Facebook have grown by 73 percent and posts by Weibo (Chinese social media) have reached over 187 million users.

With the Asian Cup starting its quarterfinals phase Thursday, the AFC is expecting a massive increase of these statistics and numbers. Endi