New Delhi : The Initial 59 matches of the recently-concluded IPL 8 drew 10 lakh more television viewers than the previous edition IPL 7, shows the data released by TAM Media Research this week. The audience research firm will release figures for the final match played last Sunday by next week, in which Mumbai Indians (MI) defeated Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
According to the data, 19 crore people watched the first 59 matches on television compared with 18.9 crore TV viewers until the final last year. The average rating for the 59 matches was 22% higher over the previous year. After 59 games, the average rating for the tournament stood at 3.7 against 3 last year.
This year, cricket enthusiasts watched the games for an average 45 minutes 43 seconds compared with 41 minutes 47 seconds last year. “New players in all teams and many close matches helped this year,” said Basabdatta Chowdhuri, CEO at Platinum Media, a part of Madison Media Group. Advertisers are happy with the good visibility and positive traction that their brands have got this season of the IPL, she said.
“A good rating this year will certainly give a boost to the next edition as advertising is always based on past performance.” There were question marks over the IPL this year as it was right after the ICC Cricket World Cup. Many predicted cricket fatigue but ratings tell a different story. “If India does well in the World Cup, IPL usually does well too.
Next year is the T20 World Cup that will be by India and that should also have a positive rub-off on IPL,” said Chowdhuri. This year, Multi Screen Media, the official broadcaster of the IPL, was able to sell most of the tournament’s advertising inventory before the start of the tournament and is expected to make close to Rs 950 crore.
It signed up 12 sponsors that included ecommerce firms Amazon, Paytm, and traditional advertisers such as Vodafone andPepsi. According to the data so far, the second semi-final between CSK and Royal Challengers Bangalore garnered the highest rating of 5.6 TVR, followed by the MI-CSK quarter final which got a rating of 5.5 TVR.
