First 51 matches of IPL 2024 brought in 510 million TV viewers, says Disney Star

Disney Star, the television broadcaster of IPL 2024, said on Thursday that 510 million people have watched the tournament’s 51 matches so far. Citing numbers shared by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), Disney Star said the cumulative watch time for IPL 2024 on television was up 18% from the 2023 edition, reflecting sustained engagement and interest from viewers.

With 17 matches still left to go, the broadcaster said it has already surpassed the cumulative audience reach achieved in seven of the eight previous editions of the tournament, as measured by BARC.

It added that the television viewer ratings (TVR) for the first 51 matches were 5% higher than the previous record, set in 2019, which suggests a widening viewership base and an expanding reach across television audiences.

TVR is a metric used to measure the popularity of a television program or broadcast and represents the television households or individuals watching a particular programme as a percentage of the total number of television households or individuals in a specific demographic.

Digital broadcast partner JioCinema has not released any fresh viewership figures. In mid-April, 29 matches into the tournament, it said it had clocked more than 38.3 crore viewers on the platform, up 42% from the same period last season. It also said viewers on connected TVs spent an average of more than 80 minutes watching each match.

Sponsorship on the rise, too
According to a recent report by GroupM ESP, the sports division of GroupM India, sports sponsorships in India crossed ₹15,766 crore in 2023, an increase of 10.95% from ₹14,209 crore in the previous year.This expenditure included ground fees, team and franchise fees, athlete endorsements, and media spending. Predictably, cricket came out on top, accounting for 87% of the total spending at ₹13,701 crore, a 13% increase from 2022.

The report, titled ‘Sporting Nation: Building a Legacy’, highlighted the remarkable surge in digital advertising revenues, which accounted for 40% of the overall ad spending. This growth was attributed to the fact that IPL matches and ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup matches on OTT platforms are free of charge.

While ad spends are growing steadily in favour of cricket, many viewers said they couldn’t recall more than two or three brands. Mint recently reported that this resulted in sluggish ad rates and cautious spending on television ads by companies. This trend extends to the digital realm as well. Live Mint