MUMBAI: The IPL is on track to cross the 400 million viewers’ mark on TV for the fourth year in a row, claimed Star India, the official broadcaster of the league.
A leading business news portal quoted data by Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC), a TV audience measurement service, as claiming that the ongoing IPL has so far has garnered 380 million viewers until match number 35, which is 12 million higher than IPL 2020 at the same stage.
The TV viewer aggregation is higher than the last three editions of the tournament since 2018, the report said.
The consumption for the IPL, including Star Sports’ pre-match programming, stands at 242 billion minutes.
Further, the report quoted the broadcaster as saying that in the second phase of this IPL, viewer engagement levels were an average of 32 per cent on a per match basis which is at par with IPL 2020.
The success of IPL can be attributed to Star India’s strategy of regionalisation and customer segmentation, whereby the tournament is presented in eight different languages to cater to viewers in different states and regions and two additional customised match-feeds to cater to specific consumer segments.
This combined with an incomparable slate of programming comprising Byju’s Cricket Live, Cricket Countdown and Game Plan, all provide fans well-rounded coverage of the tournament. The roster of franchise shows such as Knight Club (Kolkata Knight Riders), Inside RCB (Royal Challengers Bangalore), The Super Kings Show (Chennai Super Kings), MITV (Mumbai Indians) and Ye Hai Nayi Dilli (Delhi Capitals) stoke fandom for the respective teams.
With spots in the playoffs still up for grabs and at least six teams in the hunt, the league stage of the tournament promises to go down to the wire, which will generate even more excitement amongst cricket fans, which will reach its peak on October 15 when the final of the tournament will be played.
