IPL is the most-watched cricket tournament in India. Over the last decade and more, the Indian Premier League has emerged as one of the most eagerly awaited sporting events on TV. Even the pandemic didn’t stop the IPL, as last year in 2020, IPL took place in UAE, with no audience in the stadium. The Yearly Data released by Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) reports that IPL-13 viewership witnessed a substantial growth of 23% compared to 2019.
According to BARC data, Even as the Indian Premier League 2020 garnered 400 billion minutes of television consumption which is the highest ever for an Indian sports tournament, in 2020, the sports genre witnessed its weekly TV viewing minutes decreasing by 35 percent year-on-year.
While viewership from Megacities grew by 6%, states like Bihar/ Jharkhand, Odisha, Kerala saw significant growth in viewership in 2020.
6.7 Billion viewing Minutes was garnered by IPL-13 per match, which increased by 23% in 2020 compared to 2019; 65% is the contribution of viewership from Hindi, which rose from 59% in the previous season. 58% is the contribution from NCCS AB is up from 57% during the last year.
According to the BARC data, 48% of the Indian viewing audience were glued to their TV set during the live telecast of IPL-13, in which 53% of the audience were male, and 43% of the audience were female. Younger audiences have always been drawn towards IPL’s fast-paced format. The 15-30 years age group remained the highest viewership contributor, which is 35%.
If we look at the region-wise contribution, IPL-13 viewership reveals a significant growth of 28% coming from the southern markets, while the Hindi-speaking Market posted a 20% rise.
Advertising data from IPL-13 once again points to the new “post-pandemic reality”, the growing relevance and footprint of the internet and mobile-led products and services in our lives. The top Advertised categories and brands during the 2020 edition of IPL underscore that trend, with most of them relating to online shopping, education, gaming, e-payment wallets. Social media, cellular, and services. OPPO India commanded a majority share, emerging as the no one advertiser for IPL 2020.
As per the BARC data, the Top 5 sectors in IPL 2020 were services, Food & beverages, Auto, Telecom Products, Internet service. The top 5 Categories were Cellular phones, E-com gaming, E-com wallets, E-com media, E-com education. The top 5 brands were Dream11, VI cellular, PhonePe, Amazon. in, and Kamla pasand.
In terms of viewership, IPL was the cheerleader, the sports genre saw a huge spike as IPL-13 rolled out, and a cricket-starved nation lapped it up.
