According to the Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC), the reach of the annual T20 tournament dipped by 21 per cent in the Hindi-speaking market (HSM).
The reach of a televised show refers to the number of people who have seen it for at least a minute. It has a direct relationship with the distribution of the channel(s). The IPL was telecast on Sony Max last year, a Hindi movie channel which has a stronger distribution in Hindi-speaking market as compared to the sports channels.
"Looking at the big picture, Star Network's 10 channels delivered higher coverage (reach) in the southern markets. Conversely, HSM markets were hit by 21 per cent. This could be due to their distribution," said Vineet Sodhani, chief executive officer, Spatial Access.
According to the BARC data provided by Star India, television viewership stood at 288.4 million viewers (BARC 2+ U+R) and a platform reach of 82.4 million viewers on Hotstar. TV viewership also includes the eyeballs grabbed by matches telecast on Doordarshan (DD). If viewership on DD is removed (which is telecast with an hour's delay), the reach decreases to 245.7 million as compared to last year's 254.7 million.
In the male 15+ AB, urban target group (males above 15 years in the New Consumer Classification System in A and B urban areas), the tournament registered 273 million impressions (the number of people watching the tournament at any given point in time during its telecast) a 23 per cent growth rate compared to a year ago. In keeping with the viewership trend on the IPL, 40 per cent of the viewers were women.
Sanjay Gupta, managing director, Star India, said, "The consumption growth is a satisfying yardstick of unmatched fan delight and value for brands. Even though it is early days, this has already become the most-watched IPL ever on a tournament-to-date basis."
Average impressions per match grew by 14 per cent at all-India level. The steepest rise came from the south.
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