The 17th edition of the TATA Indian Premier League opened to blockbuster viewership numbers, with 16.8 crore (168 million) unique viewers tuning in to watch the season’s first game between Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru on March 22, Disney Star, the tournament’s official broadcaster stated on Thursday.
The broadcaster further asserted that a composite watch-time of 12.76 billion minutes represents the highest ever for the opening day of any IPL season. Watch-time minutes are a compilation of the time spent by each viewer in watching the game.
The 17th season of IPL also witnessed the highest-ever peak TV concurrency for an opening day, with 61m viewers watching the broadcast simultaneously on the Disney Star network.
“Disney Star had recorded 870 crore minutes on the IPL’s opening day in 2023. In comparison to the previous edition, there is a growth of 16 per cent in TV consumption,” the company stated.
In comparison, on digital, JioCinema had clocked 113m viewers on the first day of the IPL. The streamer asserted that it registered a 51% jump over day one of IPL 2023. The total watch time on JioCinema on day 1 was 6.6bn minutes, it had stated.
Defending champion Chennai Super Kings defeated Royal Challengers Bengaluru by six wickets in the season-opener in Chennai.
The Opening Day of IPL 2024 on the Disney Star network, for the first time ever, featured 8 of the 10 captains for the 17th season, reflecting on what the tournament has in store for them as well as the potential opportunities and challenges. This unfiltered account of the IPL captains’ expectations made for compelling viewing on Opening Day.
A star-studded line-up of talent comprising IPL title winners, World Cup champions, reputed coaches, and legends from the game presented the Opening Day. It saw Navjot Singh Sidhu return to the commentary box and join India’s World Champions Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Ravi Shastri, Sunil Gavaskar, and Kris Srikkanth. It witnessed the debuts of Steve Smith and Stuart Broad, who join legends Brian Lara, Matthew Hayden, Kevin Pietersen, Jacques Kallis and Dale Steyn in presenting TATA IPL 2024. CSK’s former stars Ambati Rayudu, Murali Vijay, L Balaji, and Subramaniam Badrinath along with IPL champions Vinay Kumar and Venugopal Rao were at the forefront of Disney Star’s regional feeds in 9 languages.
The ensemble of ~120 cricketers was complimented by national and regional celebrities as well as fan-favourite presenters and content creators, to deliver wholesome entertainment on the Opening Day.
The record-breaking TV viewership on the opening day comes on the back of an incredible lead-up to the 17th season which attracted more than 245m unique viewers till a week prior to the start of the tournament.
Star Sports has also launched IPL in 4K with Atmos sound across major DTH platforms, to deliver enhanced visual delight complimented with an incomparable audio experience.
Star Sports has also launched a special feed for the differently abled with descriptive commentary and sign language interpretation, for the visually impaired, Deaf, or Hard-of-Hearing fans, making this IPL truly inclusive. This is the first time for any marquee sporting event, anywhere in the world to have a LIVE feed for differently abled.
