Sony Pictures expects huge jump in IPL viewership

Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) is expecting a huge jump in viewership for this year's edition of IPL T20 from last year's approximate figure of 200 million put out by erstwhile rating mechanism of TAM.

"To put it in perspective, media reports of last year suggested that on TAM, we had a viewership of approximately 200 million. This was when TAM was only monitoring urban India at around a 250 million base.

TAM only monitored urban India and it has given way to a new rating mechanism of BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) that takes into account viewership in rural areas too.

"BARC... the total base monitored is nearly three times of that. Definitely, there will be a huge surge in growth. At this point of time, it is difficult to predict what that number could be," Prasana Krishnan, Executive Vice President and Business Head, Sports Cluster of SPN, told reporters here today.

He did not discuss revenue aspects of the issue, but said it could roughly see a 15-20 per cent growth over last year.

In the wake of the overwhelming response to the regional feeds last year, the network said the language feeds in Tamil, Telugu and Bengali would continue this year.

As part of initiatives to bring in newer audiences, SPN will broadcast the matches in the local regional feed at the IPL "fan parks" that will be hosted across 35 cities in the country.

The IPL T20 jamboree begins in Mumbai on April 9 with the first match being played between Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiants.