BREAKING. Live broadcasts of 2010 FIFA World Cup matches have grown South African television audiences considerably.

South Africans are blatantly working much less and watching way more television as a result of the 2010 FIFA World Cup matches being screened live on SABC1 as well as SuperSport 3 nd SuperSport HD. South African television viewership has grown massively with matches being broadcast during the early afternoon, later afternoon and evenings.

According to the latest South African viewership figures tot total TV audience during afternoons have swelled by over 500 000 for the time period between 13:00 and 15:00. For the past six months the average audience was 5,1 million viewers which has now grown to 5,8 million which is massive for the South African television landscape.

Here is the top 10 2010 FIFA World Cup matches, based on total South African TV audience so far:
1. South Africa vs Uruguay 10 150 262
2. South Africa vs Mexico 10 064 326
3. Brazil vs Korea 7 301 500
4. Italy vs Paraguay 6 264 729
5. Spain vs Switzerland 5 610 619
6. Argentina vs Nigeria 5 529 627
7. Côte d'Ivoire vs Portugal 5 385 189
8. England vs USA 5 341 721
9. Serbia vs Ghana 5 291 560
10. Germany vs Australia 5 207 525 

BREAKING. SuperSport pulls amazing viewership numbers for 2010 FIFA World Cup opening and the opening match.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony last Friday, 11 June drew 480 000 viewers to SuperSport 3 (DStv 203) between 14:00 and 15:00.

Later that same day during the 2010 FIFA World Cup opening match between South Africa and Mexico, the TV audience who watched on SuperSport 3 climbed to a staggering 1,197 million. A staggering 45,9% of all TV sets that were watching DStv, were tuned to SuperSport 3 between 16:00 and 18:00. ''It is a remarkable performance,'' says Brenda Wortley, the head of research and strategy at Oracle Airtime Sales (OATS).

''Unlike the traditional soccer audience on SuperSport, viewers of the opening game had a higher than average level of female viewers,'' she says. ''The opening game profiled 35% below the age of 24, 38% between 25 and 49, and 27% older than 50. Traditional Friday evening viewing was turned on its head with TV audiences tuning out of their regular Friday programmes into SuperSport live broadcasts. All DStv channel genres reflected shifts in audience share ranging from between 5% to 40%,'' says Brenda Wortley.

ALSO READ: The SABC gloats about its viewership record for the 2010 FIFA World Cup opening match on SABC1.