With IPL wait getting longer amid Covid-19, viewers switch to films & news

Core viewers of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which has been postponed indefinitely, are shifting from sports channels to other genres.
 

And the big gainers from this are movie and news channels. The core or heavy viewers are the top 33 per cent of the audience for the IPL season of 2019 (the IPL was slated to be held in April-May this year). They are the ones who generally see a match every day.
 

According to the data from the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) of India, with Nielsen, during week 13-16 (the 16th week started April 18), the core viewers made a 20 per cent viewership contribution to sports channels last year but that fell to a mere 2 per cent in the same weeks this year.

However, during the same period, core IPL viewers were still spending long hours on television every day (after all you are at home).

 

That number went up from 4.48 hours last year in the weeks when the IPL was on to 5.28 hours now.
 

Sunil Lulla, chief executive of BARC, said: “What we are seeing is that with the suspension of the IPL and very little or no live sports programming, core viewers are shifting to watching other genres.”
 

However, their contribution to the movie genre shot up from 21 per cent last year in week 13-16 to 28 per cent this year. And even news saw an upsurge, going up from 9 per cent to 19 per cent, thanks to focused news on the pandemic.
 

Lulla, however, pointed to the importance of the IPL. Sports channels’ share of TV viewership was estimated at around 3.5 per cent in 2019 against 3.2 per cent in 2018.
 

But when the IPL happens, their share shoots up in those weeks to 5.1 per cent.

 

Without the IPL there is no advertising because there are no viewers to reach.
 

Looking at it from another perspective, the share of cricket in sports viewership is still a staggering 81 per cent. Kabaddi and wrestling account for 15 per cent.
 

Advertisers have estimated the loss in commercials could be Rs 6,000-7,000 crore in April and May. The loss includes ad revenues from IPL.
 

The loss in advertising revenues is nearly a fourth or fifth of the TV advertising pie of Rs 32,000 crore, which was expected this year. Advertisers point out around Rs 5,000 crore comes from the IPL.