Indian Olympic stars dominated TV ads during Tokyo Olympics 2020: BARC

Indian men's hockey team at the 2020 Tokyo Games. Former Indian hockey captain and OGQ CEO Viren Rasquinha says that for Tokyo "both Indian hockey teams (men’s and women’s) were selected based not on reputations but form and fitness". (Image source: Hockey India Twitter)

During the recently concluded Tokyo Olympics, Indian Olympic stars dominated advertisements on TV, per Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC), television audience measurement service.

Among the advertisements that featured during the 2020 games, around 31 percent ads featured Indian Olympic stars.

Out of the 31 percent ads, 69 percent ads featured female Olympians.

Among the most visible Olympians in TV ads during the 2020 games, shooter Manu Bhaker ranked first, followed by shutler PV Sindhu, and wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt.

Other Olympic stars that had strong visibility include wrestler Bajrang Punia, archer Deepika Kumari, fencer Bhavani Devi, boxer Mary Kom, table tennis player Manika Batra, hockey player Rani Rampal.

Along with data around TV ads, BARC also pointed out some viewership numbers for the games featuring Indian athletes.

While the Indian men's hockey team won a medal (bronze) at the 2020 games, it was the Indian women's hockey match that saw more traction amid viewers in India.

Indian women's hockey match against Great Britain recorded 311.3 million viewing minutes. Indian women's hockey team had lost 3-4 to Great Britain in a hard-fought bronze play-off.

As regards the Indian men's hockey match against Germany, the match registered 260.9 million viewing minutes. The Indian men's hockey team defeated Germany to win their first-ever Olympic medal in 41 years.

Among sports, hockey grabbed a strong viewership share with 15.2 percent, followed by table tennis with 13.7 percent, badminton with 12.3 percent, and boxing with a 12.2 percent share.

The opening week of the Tokyo Olympics had clocked 6.9 million viewers and 5.8 billion viewing minutes.

The top five regions that contributed to Olympics 2020 viewership included Assam/North East with an overall share of 27.7 percent, followed by a distant second Maharashtra/Goa with 11.5 percent share.

Tamil Nadu/Pondicherry came third on the list with an 8.8 percent viewership share, followed by Uttar Pradesh/Uttarakhand with 6.3 percent. Kerala was in the fifth spot with 5.8 percent.