Mumbai: The Vivo IPL Season 11 on Star Network has got off to a grand start. With exciting matches and the reintroduction of CSK and RR the tournament is generating massive fan excitement across screens across the country.
This is the first time the tournament has gone live across screens, both TV and Digital. This is the first time the tournament is being broadcast in 6 languages on 7 dedicated feeds. This Vivo IPL also marks a truly differentiated and immersive engagement on Digital with a global first gaming experience, “Watch N Play” and the introduction of a live Virtual Reality feed. The exciting games and content package are seeing a massive affirmation from fans across screens across the country!
For the first time: a “Total Audience Viewership” view across screens!
We are excited to announce that for the first time we will be measuring a “Total Audience Viewership” across screens. This will capture consumption across TV screens in home, out of home and Digital – giving a unified, holistic view.
Total Reach at 423 million fans* for the first two weeks
The Total Reach across Star TV network (in home and out of home) and Hotstar is 423 million fans for the first 2 weeks and looks well poised to achieve the 700 million fans targeted across screens for the tournament. The 700 million fans target was an ambitious goal of adding 200 million fans across screens this IPL.
IPL Total Audience Viewership grows at an epic 27% on the back of a “Reimagined IPL”
The central idea of the re-imagination of IPL was to put cricket at the core of the entertainment. Powered by an investment in a high amplitude “Best vs Best” marketing campaign, a world class production with ~100 commentators representing the finest cricketing minds in the world and a specialized super-fan “Dugout”
feed – Total Audience Viewership in Urban India across TV (in home and out of home) and Hotstar has increased by 27% at 289 Mn** impressions for the first 2 weeks. This is an incredible surge given the scale of the tournament. In fact, viewership on Hotstar has set new global records for live sports peak concurrency touching 7 million in the RCB vs CSK game on April 25th, 2018, beating the previous record at 6 million peak concurrency achieved on the MI vs RCB game on April 17th, 2018.
Localisation powers growth
The regional language feeds across 4 markets have received a tremendous response with the three southern markets of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh/ Telangana along with West Bengal witnessing a viewership growth of 39% on Total Viewership across screens. Fans have been vocal in their praise across markets enjoying the action in their own language.
Excitement & Engagement like never before
The thought behind this year’s offering has been to bring the fans closer to the stadium by participating in the Watch N Play game and expressing their emotions. On Hotstar, for the first time, fans were able to express their emotions during the match through emojis. Over 1.7 bn emojis have been sent by fans across the country in the tournament so far.
