Despite India's not-so-great run in the Cricket World Cup in South Africa, the Sony Entertainment Television's India's telecast has managed ratings as high as 8.6 television rating points rating for the two India matches. The matches India did not feature in have attracted a TRP rating of 4.2.

"Our new way of presenting cricket has shown great results and has given very high ratings," Kunal Dasgupta, chief executive officer, SET India said.

According to the recent TAM data, viewers in Kolkata have the highest TRP rating at 10.3 for all the matches.

Despite, India's poor show against the Australians, the TRP rating for that match in Kolkata was as high as 20.2. The India-Holland match had a TRP of 17.6 in the city.

Average TRP in Mumbai was 7.1, with the India-Australia match getting a TRP of 10. In Delhi, the average TRP for the tournament was 5.6 with the highest at 9.2 for the India-Holland match.

"The non India TRP has shown a dramatic improvement. Our programmes like Voice of India has helped attract more viewers for the non India matches as well," said Rajat Jain, executive vice president, SET India.

Besides, the reach of the World Cup telecast has also shown substantial improvement. According to TAM data, the total viewership was as high as about 49 million.

"This is substantial considering the fact that the total cable and satellite universe is only 70 million. Before India played its first match, the viewership was about 38 million and today it is 49 million," Jain said, pointing out that the pre and post-match programme Extraa Innings has attracted many new viewers.

According to the TAM data, till February 11, the viewership for Extraa Innings was 25 million, with 11 million female
and 14 million male viewers.

However, according to the TAM data, this has substantially increased to 37 million after India's matches in the tournament has started.

"We expect that with the big matches like India-England and India-Pakistan coming, we expect the viewership and ratings to grow considerably," Jain points out.