Marginal rise in Indian Premier League TV viewership in Week 1 of IPL 2018

The 11th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in its first week witnessed a total viewership of 213.9 million impressions for the eight matches played between April 7 and 13, an 8.1% rise from a year ago period. (IPL full schedule | IPL results)

Impressions, also known as television viewership in thousands (TVT), refer to the number of individuals in thousands of a target audience who viewed an event, averaged across minutes. For the first time, Star India, which won the television, digital, Indian and global media rights to IPL for the next five seasons for Rs16,347.50 crore in September, aired the tournament across 10 channels including multiple Star Sports channels as well as its regional channels such as Star Suvarna Plus, Star Maa Movies and Star Jalsha. This is Star India’s first season as the official broadcaster of the league. These numbers also include viewership from state broadcaster DD Sports which aired the opening match and the third IPL match on a one hour deferred feed.

On April 5, Star India had agreed to share with DD the opening and closing ceremonies of IPL as well as one match every Sunday including the final. The last edition had recorded 197.8 million impressions for the first eight matches across five channels— Sony Max, Sony Six, Sony Six HD, Sony ESPN and Sony ESPN HD, according to data released by television viewership measurement agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India on Thursday. Media buyers expected a higher increase in viewership given that number of channels that aired the tournament increased from five to eleven. “IPL will garner decent viewership but the difference is, with the number of channels almost doubling, one was expecting a better increase in viewership. However, its only the first eight matches.

The interest in IPL increases as the tournament progresses,” said Anita Nayyar, chief executive officer of Havas Media Group, India and South Asia. Nayyar added that IPL has always been a great opportunity for advertisers. For an 11-year old media property even the 8% growth in TV viewership augurs well. IPL 11 has seen stronger growth in urban Indian audiences which is its core audience, said a person close to the development on condition of anonymity. The opening match between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings recorded the maximum viewership among the eight matches at 35.9 million impressions, followed by the third match on Sunday evening between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders at 35.1 million impressions. Both matches were aired across 11 channels including DD Sports.