TAM data for the week 4-10 May for C&S homes 4+ paints a revealing picture. Ten Sports' highest rated show is Smackdown. on 6 May. That Mumbaiites in particular are feasting their eyes on the growing conflict between Big Show and Brock Lesnar can be gauged by the fact that the show registered a TVR of 3. Delhi was next with a figure of 1.9. For all India, it had a TVR of 1.30. In fact seven of the top ten shows are wrestling oriented. The other three are informative news based bulletins. After Smackdown , the next four highest rated shows on the channel had all India TVRs of 1.06, 1.01, 0.81 and 0.81 respectively. RAW with the antics of HHH and Kevin Nash features prominently here.

If you consider all India TVRs, not a single show on ESS has reached even 0.50. In the six major metros, none of Star Sports' top ten shows have managed to reach a TVR of 1. Its top rated show Autosports International has drawn a blank in Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore. In Mumbai, it had a TVR of 0.72. If you thought ESPN would put up a better show courtesy non-India cricket, think again. The test series between Australia and West Indies which saw Steve Waugh's men triumph 3-1 managed to draw a TVR of over 1 in the major metros just once. That was in Kolkata where it had a TVR of 1.06. It appears that unless the Indian cricket fan is emotionally involved he couldn't care less.

The same holds true for Ten Sports. Its cricket rating snippet pops in at number 11. You have to reach number 25 before a cricket match finally appears on Ten Sports in the form of the one day match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The silver lining is that it managed a TVR of 1.03 in Kolkata.

Star Sports' top five shows had low all-India TVRs of 0.19. 0.14 and 0.13. They include the much hyped live telecast of Formula One. ESPN fares marginally better with all India TVRs of 0.31, 0.28, 0.27 and 0.25.

The argument that India is a "sports-dud" nation is certainly borne out by the ratings.