IPL 2019 opens big with 31% jump in viewership for first 3 matches

The opening three matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL) this year have clocked as many as 219 million television viewers, registering a 31 percent jump over previous year across TV, out of home, rural and urban markets.

The significant jump in the viewership numbers is a proof of the league’s wide reach and that IPL will be biggest ever this year.

According to BARC PreView data, IPL’s reach in Hindi-speaking markets (HSM) grew by 30 percent to 79 million on the opening day, compared to 60 million a year ago.

Down South, the total number of individuals who viewed the event for at least one minute was up by 20 percent for the match between Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

This year, Star India was betting big on its regional push and it looks like the localisation strategy helped the channel enhance regional viewership.

The network is telecasting matches on as many as 24 channels, up from 10 channels last year. The channels include network’s sports channel channel Star Sports across languages.

It also includes movie channel Star Gold (Hindi), Star Maa Movies (Telugu), Hungama (kids), Vijay Super (Tamil), Asianet Plus (Malayalam), Star Suvarna (Kannada), Jalsha Movies (Bengali) and Star Pravah (Marathi).

The company had also recently launched Star Sports Bangla along with Tamil and the more recently launched Kannada and Telugu channels.

BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) India launched its PreView service last year, which allows subscribers to see data of any event three days after its telecast.

During the first three days, the average impressions at 105 million saw a 29 percent jump over last year.

The number of individuals in thousands of a target audience who viewed an event averaged across minutes are referred to as impressions. 

The inaugural game of the 11th season of IPL last year, played between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, registered a viewership on television of 6,355,000 impressions, according to BARC Preview.

The viewership witnessed a growth of 37 percent over 10th season's opening game.