World Cup loses to IPL in TV viewership

The 10th edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup kicked off with a bang, with the opening match between India and Bangladesh drawing nearly 39 million viewers across the country yesterday. But, the figures are about 80 per cent less in some cases, when compared with the opening match of Indian Premier League-3.

Official broadcaster ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) saw 18.8 million viewers tuning in across its three channels, ESPN, STAR Cricket and STAR Sports. Another 20 million viewers watched the match live on Doordarshan, the public sector broadcaster which is free to air.

According to data available with aMap, an overnight television audience measurement agency, ESS recorded ratings of 2.12 points in cable and satellite (C&S) homes across the country. The ratings recorded for the inaugural match of IPL-3 played between Deccan Chargers and Kolkata Knight Riders, is 3.8 points.

IPL matches are, however, only available on SET Max (a pay channel), unlike the World Cup matches, some of which are being shown on DD.

From data for the six metros — Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad — the ratings peaked to 4 points for the World Cup match on Saturday.

The ratings are slightly lower than the peak ratings of 4.3 points recorded in the metros during the opening match of IPL-3.

Moreover, the number of viewers recorded is significantly higher than the viewership for the Commonwealth Games hosted in Delhi in October last year, when cumulative numbers for the event over the first three days had been 33 million. Even the response to the World Cup T20 held in West India in April-May 2010 had been lukewarm, hooking on a mere 5.1 million viewers on the opening day.

Viewership, however, remained strong across the country, with average time spent per viewer at a whopping 85 minutes. In metros, the time spent stood slightly higher, at 88 minutes.

As many as 49 matches are going to be played across India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the 10th edition of the World Cup, which has returned to the subcontinent after a gap of 15 years. Matches that kicked off on February 19 would end with the final on April 2.