Vivo IPL catches 186 million viewers in first 3 days

Biggest jump in this year's IPL viewership comes in time spent at 72 minutes

Cricket continues to rule our hearts, and the proof of the pudding is Vivo Indian Premier League.

This year, its reach (total number of viewers) has increased by nearly 16 per cent, and impressions (number of people watching IPL on TV at any time) grew by 40 per cent.

However, both the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC)-India, measurer of TV viewership, and Sony Pictures Network (SPN), the official broadcaster of the tournament, have warned against comparing this year’s IPL viewership data with that of the previous season. This is because of changes in measurement norms.

Two of the most important changes are: increase in weightage of rural viewership (56 per cent of the mix now, compared to 50 per cent earlier); and expanding the audience age group from four years to two years.

This year, the first three matches recorded an average 29.84 million impressions in the India market, among audiences over two years of age. Among audiences aged 15 years and above, the matches averaged at 25.2 million impressions.

The data is for viewership across Sony Max, Sony Six (HD and SD) and Sony ESPN (SD and HD) channels.

“With the weightage of rural (measurement) increasing, we expected viewership to grow over the last year. What is very encouraging is that the viewership in the 15 and above category has increased by 24 per cent and the time spent has grown significantly. This is what the advertisers come to the IPL for — the width of the reach and the depth of the time spent it can provide,” said Neeraj Vyas, senior EVP and business head, Sony Max cluster at SPN.

The biggest jump in this year’s IPL viewership comes, arguably, in time spent.

This year, the average time spent per viewer is 72 minutes for the first three matches. Last year, this was 46 minutes. It is an increase of 56.5 per cent.

This is good news for the advertisers as it means their brands enjoy that much more exposure.

Rajat Mehta, senior president, marketing and corporate communication, YES BANK, said, “We are a long-term official central partner to the IPL; 2017 is our fifth consecutive year of this partnership. Even as the tournament celebrates its 10th anniversary, it is clearly the most popular property in India and one of the largest sporting properties globally. We believe that the ethos of IPL — being an Indian property with world-class standards — resonates with YES BANK’s brand ethos.”

Increase in the viewership and time spent can be attributed to multiple factors, SPN said.

“I think this year there are two things at play. One is India’s performance in the series (with Australia) right before the IPL. There is a positive sentiment towards cricket, so the initial reach is high. Adding to this, the matches themselves have been good. Usually, it takes a couple of weeks before high-scoring matches with exciting run chases are seen. This year, teams are hitting big and chasing fast from the word go. In cricket, big scores and good chases will always get you the eyeballs,” said Vyas.

He added going forward, the trend should hold up, if the quality of the games continues to be consistent, and the afternoon slot does not dwindle in viewership too much.

The afternoon matches usually measure 35 to 40 per cent less than the prime time matches since most of the audience might not be free to watch.