IPL 8 gets 110 mn views on hotstar

The Indian Premier League has crossed 100 million views on Star India’s mobile streaming app hotstar in 20 days.

The network, which won the digital media rights for the annual twenty-20 cricket tournament for three years until 2017, had 110 million views for all the matches played between April 8 and April 28.

This is an 8.5 times increase in digital viewership from last year when the tournament was streamed on starsports.com because Star India shared the digital telecast rights with Times Internet. Total views for the last season were 62 million.

hotstar, a digital platform  for sports, TV shows and movies in seven  languages, was launched on February 1, 2015. It gained traction during the ICC Cricket World Cup when it recorded 10 million downloads and had 340 million views.

“It has provided opportunity for a number of advertisers that could not afford TV rates for the IPL. It works well for brands that target youth. Flexible delivery options have helped customise the messaging,” said a planner who worked closely with brand advertising on hotstar during the IPL.

Hotstar has close to 50 advertisers for the IPL, including Flipkart, Airtel, Vodafone, Daikin, Voltas, housing.com, Tourism Australia, Hindustan Unilever and Karbonn Mobiles.

“Given that a large part of the working population follows IPL matches on the move, we identified this as an opportunity to strengthen our brand,” said Pratik Seal, chief marketing officer, housing.com. “With IPL digital, we have been able to reach out to our digitally active audience,” he added.

Advertisers on hotstar can choose from a range of delivery options to meet their campaign objectives. They also have a bouquet of sub-platforms like digital video, display and section-branding. On television too, the IPL has seen a spike in viewership over last year, registering 5 per cent growth in reach, 30 per cent increase in viewership and 17 per cent increase in average time spent per viewer per match for the first 14 matches.