Non-live IPL content contributes incremental 144 million in reach

Star India's efforts at expanding the non-live content around the IPL this year has helped rope in viewers on free-to-air channels, where live content is not available

The Vivo Indian Premier League (IPL) has attracted audiences not only for the live matches but also for non-live content. According to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) data obtained from Star India, the surround shows and highlights around the IPL have contributed to 144 million in incremental reach in this year's telecast. Reach refers to the number of (unique) individuals who have seen the tournament for one minute at least.

The combined reach of live matches, highlights and surround shows since the start of the league amounts to 520 million, 26.82 per cent higher than 2017’s combined reach of 410 million. Star India, the official broadcaster of the IPL for 2018-22 period has made efforts towards providing wider range of programming before and after the match. For its Star Sports Select feed, it has developed a separate show called Select Dugout.

This year, a significant contribution to the non-live content reach has come from the network’s free-to-air sports channel – Star Sports First. While the channel does not telecast live matches, it has a special show every day around the IPL, and telecasts highlights of this year’s matches.

The reach of the live matches across screens (TV households, out-of-home TV screens and digital) has touched 556 million while viewership (total average impressions) has crossed the 1 billion mark (all India market, viewers above 2 years of age). Impressions refers to the number of people watching the tournament at any given point in time during its live telecast.

In the urban market, the viewership has risen 24 per cent to 611 million impressions while digital impressions on Hotstar have risen to 97 million.