Halfway through the Tata Indian Premier League 2024, Disney Star, the official broadcaster, reported a surge in viewership citing data shared by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC).
According to Disney Star, the ongoing season has so far garnered 475 million viewers, and logged 245 billion minutes of watch time, marking an 18% increase from the previous season.
Likewise, after the 29 matches, official streaming partner JioCinema recorded over 12 billion views and 148 billion minutes of watch time, up 42% from the same period last season. The average time spent per-viewer-per-match on Connected TV (CTV) surpassed 80 minutes.
Additionally, the broadcaster’s television (TV) reach, comprising both urban and rural audiences aged 2 years and above, for live matches, grew 5% over 2019.
TV reach refers to the number or percentage of unique households or individuals who have tuned in to a specific television programme or channel within a defined time frame. It serves as a crucial metric to assess audience size and penetration, offering insights into the popularity and reach of the content.
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Highest concurrent viewership for any league game in current & past seasons
According to the broadcaster, concurrent viewership reached 63 million for the Mumbai Indians (MI) versus Chennai Super Kings (CSK) match on 14 April, the highest for any league game in both current and past seasons. Furthermore, the match drew a total 174 million TV viewers, and logged 15.4 billion minutes.
In fact, MS Dhoni’s remarkable performance and Rohit Sharma’s century captivated audiences across platforms. JioCinema tallied an impressive viewership of over 715 million for the MI-CSK match, and logged 9.33 billion minutes, and 130 million viewers, eclipsing its viewership numbers of the 2023 IPL final.
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For this season, sponsors including Tata Motors, PayZapp by HDFC Bank, SBI, Cred, AMFI, Upstox, Charged by Thums Up, Britannia, Pepsi, Parle products, Google Pixel, Haier, Jindal Steel, Vodafone, Dalmia Cements, Kamla Pasand, Rapido, MRF Tyres, RuPay, and Jaguar Bath & Light have signed up on the streaming platform.
On TV, there are some exclusive sponsors with a degree of overlap. Key sponsors include Dream11, Asian Paints, Vimal, Thums Up Charged, Havells, Joy Cosmetics, Dettol, Harpic, Vanessa, Amul, Groww, RuPay Credit, HDFC PayZapp, Parle, and Mondelez.
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However, Mint had earlier reported that ad rates have remained constant, with companies holding back on allocating their ad spends for the tournament due to the general elections, and the ICC Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup scheduled for June in the US.
In April 2023, IPL organizers made a significant decision to split its rights into digital and TV packages for the 2023-27 cycle, forming partnerships with media giants Viacom18 and Star Sports. This move potentially contributed to stagnant growth due to a slowdown in advertising expenditure.
