MUMBAI: India’s matches at the Asia Cup 2018 in the UAE ensured that Star Sports, the tournament’s official broadcaster topped the television charts as per BARC India’s Week 38 data.
Star’s marketing campaign #KnockThemOut especially that focused on India playing Pakistan in an ODI for the first time in more than year on 19 September, seemed to have worked wonders in building greater anticipation for the match. It attracted as many as 29.4 million impressions, which is the highest of the tournament so far despite the contest eventually being a one-sided affair.
It remains to be seen if the Super 4 India vs Pakistan clash on 23 September tops this figure, which will be made public next week by BARC.
The India vs Bangladesh match on 21 September 18 had many takers as well with 17.8 million viewers tuning in to catch the live action. While India’s unexpectedly close clash with minnows Hong Kong in the group stage, gained 11.2 million impressions. All these numbers are nearly 6 times greater than all non-India matches on average with the match between Afghanistan and Bangladesh on 20 September scoring the highest in that category with 4.5 million impressions.
The tournament gained acceptance in urban and rural areas well enough, with the former garnering 55% of impressions vis-à-vis 45% in the latter. It played a huge role in Star Sports 1 Hindi being the most watched sports channel of the week between 15 and 21 September with 500.3 million impressions.
Much like the IPL, the tournament was 59-41 in terms of male-female audiences, which can be considered a success so far. These numbers should be able to put to rest the controversy between Star India and BCCI surrounding Virat Kohli’s absence from the tournament. The broadcaster is expected to confirm whether it could meet its Rs. 2 billion target of advertising revenue soon after the final between India and Bangladesh on Friday.
