MUMBAI: Amid the dirt and muck of scams, the Commonwealth Games has deliveerd in ratings.

11.6 million viewers in the Metros tuned in to the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games across DD National and DD Sports.

Tam data c&s4+ across six Metros shows that 7.4 million viewers watched the show on DD National while the remaining came from DD Sports on 3 October.
 
By comparison in 2006, only 4.1 million viewers had tuned in for the event which took place in Melbourne. This time the ceremony got a rating of 1.63 on DD National and 1.03 on DD Sports. In 2006, the ceermony got a rating of 1.16 on DD National and 0.01 on DD Sports.
 
The opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in 2008 was watched by 7.8 million viewers across the two channels. The ad volume has also shot up. An hour‘s worth of ads was aired during this year‘s Commonwealth Games opening ceremony compared to 20 minutes inn 2006. During the Olympic Games opening ceremony in 2008, 40 minutes worth of ads aired.
 
With all this, it is not surprising that some companies are looking to take part through on air spots. Pepsi and Dabur are said to be evaluating opportunities especially for the closing ceermony.

LG and Samsung, however, are not taking part. For LG the budget has already been fixed while a Samsung spokesperson says that the company is more interested in the Olympic Games and Asian Games.

A sports marketing expert expresses dissatisfaction at how the ads have been managed. "A long interval of 10 minutes runs the danger of putting viewers off. It spoils the viewing experience. Also as of now, I have not seen any private companies advertising beyond the on-ground sponsors like Tisco. They got some airtime. Apart from that, companies like Indian Railways have been seen. The question is whether they want to advertise or if they have been made to do so by the Government," he said.

It is not just on-air though where the event is doing well. Online from 3-5 October, the Commonwealth Games site had over 4.2 million unique visitors, with over 30 million page views. With the gold tally rising everyday, so is the record number of visitors on the Commonwealth Games website.

The site, www.cwgdelhi2010.org, aims to be a one stop digital destination for all information for the world event. The site highlights and facilitates key information in the most effective and seamless manner for all its visitors. The traffic on the site has already gone up and this number is expected to grow more with each passing day event.