All said and done, the fact that the spot rates ESPN Star Sports is quoting for the World Cup compares to an India-Australia type of series does speak a lot for the interest in the game in itself. "The rates are comparable to the India Australia type of series. The market is ready to accept the price ESPN Star Sports is quoting and hence they will earn as per their targets," says Goel.

However, Varghese feels that World Cup football rates won't be in comparison to cricket. "Cricket performance would at least be four - five times higher in viewer terms at an All India level. However, looking at the performance of last World Cup (average of 2.5 - 3 TVRs), the expectations are higher this time. Do expect the performance to go up by 25 - 30 per cent and more," he says.

The returns from football are limited in terms of the ad revenue that the sports broadcaster can milk out of it because of limited ad breaks during the game. Iyer, however is of the opinion that while this statement stands true, there is still significant scope for innovation. "The performance of these ad breaks however would be lower than that in cricket considering the longer durations," he says.

Dias has a different point of view to offer. "Ad revenue depends on the popularity of the program. In India, cricket is more popular and hence gets more ad revenue. KBC was a one hour program and probably got more ad revenue than World Cup soccer will get in India. But that's not true in say Brazil, where cricket can have any amount of ad breaks but World Cup soccer will definitely get more ad revenue," she says.

On the other hand, according to Goel, build up programs are the best revenue generators for football. "Football revenues are mainly earned out of association with interactive programs - quizzes, ground activation, promo tags, interactive games on net, post live properties like best goal, players interview, decisive moments etc," he says.