Karnataka emerges as most loyal to home team in IPL 2016

According to BARC data, the state tuned in more regularly to watch its home team play than any other market

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The ratings agency under the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India released what it has called a loyalty chart in terms of television viewership for the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The measure gives the ratio of viewership of a state/city for its home team’s games versus that for other games. Karnataka emerged as the most loyal state to its team, as it notched 16.78 million impressions every time Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) played, as opposed to 9.10 million impressions for other matches.

Data released by BARC India also showed that television viewership of the Vivo Indian Premier League (IPL) 9 final — between David Warner-led Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Virat Kohli-led RCB — grew 7.4 per cent over the IPL 8 final that saw Chennai Super Kings face off with Mumbai Indians.

State/territory	Home Team matches (total TV impressions)	Other Team matches (total TV impressions)	HT/OT %
Karnataka	16.78	9.1	84
AP/Telangana	14.48	10.53	38
West Bengal	8.77	6.45	36
Maharashtra/Goa – Mumbai	26.91	21.44	26
Gujarat/Diu and Daman/ Dadra Nagar Haveli	11.8	9.7	22
Delhi	4.92	5.17	-5
Maharashtra/Goa – Pune	20.17	21.44	-6
Punjab/Haryana/Chandigarh/Himachal Pradesh/J&K	8.19	9.32	-12
Source: BARC; TG: All India, 4+, 1 mn+ markets; data is for live matches

Considering the target group of individuals above four years of age and residing in cities/market with more than one million population (TG: All India, 1mn+, 4+ ), IPL 9 final garnered 13.45 million impressions, against 12.52 million impressions for the IPL 8 final between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

With CSK missing from this year’s IPL, and MI failing to make it to the final, it comes as no surprise that viewership for the final dipped in Mumbai and Chennai, but saw an increase (year on year) in Bangalore and Hyderabad, almost doubling in both cases. Mumbai, which registered 3.02 million impressions in 2015 for the final match, this year dropped to 2.37 million. Even Chennai, which this year had no home team, saw a drop in viewership for the final match.

The city had registered 0.65 million impressions last year; it registered 0.57 million impressions this year. Bengaluru registered 1 million impressions for the final, compared to 0.50 million impressions last year and Hyderabad saw 0.89 million impressions against the 0.44 million impressions the city managed in the last season.

Viewers in Andhra Pradesh/Telangana, too, were more inclined towards watching SRH matches. The state contributed to 14.48 million impressions when SRH played against 10.53 million impressions when it didn’t. West Bengal stood third on team loyalty list at 8.77 million impressions during KKR match against 6.45 million impressions otherwise.

Interestingly, Delhi, Maharashtra/Goa-Pune and PHCHP J&K regions showed far less loyalty for their home teams. Viewers from these three markets showed a preference for matches that didn’t feature their home teams, as against when their team played.  

The IPL is broadcast on Sony Picture Network (India).