The ongoing 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is on track to cross the 400 million viewers’ mark on TV, for the fourth year in a row, said Star India, the official broadcaster of the league.
According to data by Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC), a TV audience measurement service, IPL 14 so far has garnered 380 million viewers until match 35 which is 12 million higher than IPL 2020 at the same stage.
The TV viewer aggregation is in fact higher than the last three editions of the tournament, since 2018, said Star India.
The consumption for VIVO IPL 2021 including Star Sports’ pre-match programming stands at 242 billion minutes.
The broadcaster added that in the second phase of IPL 2021 viewer engagement levels were an average of 32 percent on a per match basis which is at par with IPL 2020.
During the first half of IPL 14, the opening match between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) had recorded 9.7 billion minutes of consumption on Star India channels.
The broadcaster has clocked 323 million total impressions for the opening match of VIVO IPL 2021.
The first IPL match of the 14th edition recorded 42 percent higher viewership than the 12th edition.
Last year, IPL 13 saw a 23 percent rise in TV viewership with 31.57 million people watching the marquee T20 event.
Star India for IPL 13 had noted that the league saw viewership growth of 24 percent among women and 20 percent among children respectively.
BARC data had pointed out that last year one out of three TV viewers and 44 percent out of the 86 million TV households watched the 13th edition of IPL live. Plus, the 15-21 age group has been the biggest contributor to viewership this IPL.
This year, a Star Sports spokesperson said, “We look forward to a very competitive and immersive second half of the season before we head into the pinnacle of T20 Cricket, the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, later next month.”
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