Lies, Damned Lies and TV Viewing Statistics

Here's a reasonably interesting Independent article about how FIFA exaggerates the viewership of the World Cup. That's pretty good, but the real gem is at the bottom of the article. Below you can see which events lie about their number of viewers the most, based on 54 of the world's most populous countries. I love that the Ryder Cup tried to say that one billion people watched the final day. Ha!

Sport/Event/Claim/Verifiable*

Football, Italy v France World Cup final, 715.1m/260m

American football, Super Bowl Steelers v Seahawks, 750m-1bn/98m

Winter Olympics, Torino 2006 opening ceremony, 2bn/87m

Football, Champs League Arsenal v Barça, 120m/86m

Formula One, Brazilian Grand Prix, 354m/83m

NASCAR, Daytona 500, n/a/20m

Baseball, World Series game five, n/a/19m

Golf, US Masters (final day), n/a/17m

Tennis, Wimbledon men's singles final, n/a/17m

Basketball, NBA finals game six, up to 1bn/17m

Cycling, Tour de France (final stage), n/a/15m

Golf, US Open (final day), n/a/10m

Golf, Ryder Cup (final day), up to 1bn/6m

Commonwealth Games, Melbourne opening ceremony, 1.5bn/5m

Cricket, ICC Champions Trophy final, n/a/3m