MUMBAI: The opening game of the Vivo IPL 2018 broadcast across the Star Network and live streamed on Hotstar has recorded the highest ever viewership in the history of the tournament.
The inaugural match of the 11th season played between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings registered a viewership on television of 6,355,000 impressions (India Urban, Males 15+AB) which translates to a 7.21 rating percentage (India Urban, Males 15+AB) on the Star Network.
This is a growth of 37% over last year’s opening game, the network asserted. These are simulcast ratings of the original telecast aired on Saturday April 7th at 8 pm across a bouquet of 10 channels (Star Sports 1; Star Sports 1 HD; Star Sports Select 1 SD; Star Sports Select 1 HD (English); Star Sports 1 (Hindi); Star Sports 1 HD (Hindi); Star Sports 1 Tamil (Tamil) along with Suvarna Plus (Kannada); Jalsha Movies (Bengali) and Maa Movies (Telegu).
On Hotstar, the platform posted some of the largest numbers ever with a 42 million reach on opening day which was 2.3x of last year. This record has since then been surpassed on Tuesday, April 10th, by the CSK vs KKR game setting a new global record in sports viewership on digital with 5.5 million simultaneous viewers. If Hotstar were a television channel, the rating on the opening game would have an approximate average television percentage rating of 3.1, an official release states.
Sanjay Gupta, managing director, Star India, said: “When we reimagined the VIVO IPL 2018, we were confident our immersive, multi-lingual, interactive and technology-driven presentation across TV and Digital would resonate strongly with IPL fans across India. We are pleased with the initial record-breaking numbers, which indicate that all the innovations this year have resonated with fans. As the tournament progresses, we look forward to delivering even greater all-round value to all stakeholders.”
Rahul Johri, chief executive officer, BCCI, said: “The Vivo Indian Premier League has once again proven that it is the largest media property in this country. This is IPL’s first year of partnership with Star India and I am delighted to see with the innovations that we have introduced, viewership has set new records and the tournament is set to reach a wider audience globally than ever before. It’s setting up to be a great tournament with some fantastic cricketing action for the fans who can enjoy the games in six languages, live across TV and digital for the first time. As always, we are seeing a tremendous response from both stadiums and fan parks and the atmosphere across the country has been very encouraging.”
For the first time, IPL is connecting with many Indians in their relevant language – Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Bengali. By leveraging the combined reach of digital and television the tournament will be broadcast, for the first time ever, on 10 TV channels and live streamed on Hotstar with an aim to reach out to more fans across TV and digital in India than ever before.
