Mumbai : ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, the flagship ODI cricket tournament, registered 340 million video views through the tourney making it the most viewed sporting event ever on digital in the world. The 11th edition of the World Cup registered a record 87 million unique users on Star’s digital platforms- hotstar and starsports.com, over the course of the tournament, the highest ever aggregation of users for a sporting event on digital.
With 13.5 billion hits during the course of the event, the tournament registered an all-time high for any single digital broadcaster for a sporting event globally.
The tournament also created global history for digital viewership with 50 million video views for the India Australia semi-final clash, the largest for a single event for any broadcaster anywhere in the world on digital. The game surpassed the previous record of 25 million video views set by the India Pakistan league game of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.
Sanjay Gupta, COO, Star India said, “The ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 witnessed unprecedented viewership in India, both on TV and digital. The tournament logged record views on digital from the opening day itself and broke the internet during the India Pakistan game. Mobile has emerged as a preferred platform for the 87 million Indians, and we will look to renew the fans’ relationship with their sport again with the Pepsi IPL on hotstar.”
hotstar will stream all the 60 games of the Pepsi Indian Premier League LIVE, including the qualifiers, eliminators and the final. With a dramatic surge in viewership on digital platforms in the last 12 months, hotstar is likely to reach more than 100 million fans over the course of Pepsi IPL 2015.
It is also likely to see a dramatic growth in video consumption over last year’s version which was broadcast on starsports.com. hotstar will also be programming a digital-only pre show that builds on the dramatic success of the two original shows it created for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, One Tip One Hand and Juicy Half Volley.
The Pepsi Indian Premier League on hotstar has witnessed interest from a mix of large traditional advertisers as well as new advertisers looking to associate with cricket. Key categories of advertisers include two-wheelers, four-wheelers, e-commerce, FMCG, handsets and durables.
hotstar, the newly launched digital platform with compelling content across sports, TV shows and movies in 7 languages, was launched on February 1, 2015, 14 days before the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. With over 12 million downloads in a month, the application has witnessed the fastest adoption of any digital service in the world.
