A total of 411 million viewers watched the 12th edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) in the first four weeks since the tournament started on 23 March. This year’s viewership so far is about to overtake last year's overall viewership of 414 million, claimed the league’s official broadcast partner Star India quoting data from the Broadcasting Audience Research Agency or BARC.

The network said the IPL’s television viewership delivered 28.2 million average impressions for the first four weeks, registering 16% growth. According to the weekly (13 April to 19 April) BARC data, Star Sports Hindi emerged as the most watched channel across genres with 1.04 million impressions. Impressions refer to the number of individuals, in thousands, of a target audience who viewed an event, averaged across minutes. The data includes television viewership both at home and out-of-home.

Female viewership -- above 15 years -- also witnessed an upswing, growing at 15% to reach 10.1 million impressions. The average number of impressions for women has grown from 8.8 million per match in 2018. The male viewership grew 13% to 13.6 million impressions.

The network, which is broadcasting a family-focused feed called Super Funday on Star Gold, said there has been 29% growth in viewership among children in the age group 2-14 years over last year, touching 4.5 million impressions. The women and kids segment is accounting for 52% of the tournament’s viewership this season.

Star is currently airing the IPL live across 24 channels, up from 10 channels last year. The network, which earned close to ₹2,000 crore from IPL 2018, is expected to touch ₹2,500 crore in ad revenue in IPL 2019, according to media buyers’ estimates.

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