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- Peak concurrent audience of 47m watched Mumbai Indians beat Royal Challenges Bangalore
- 36 matches have now surpassed 30m in peak concurrent viewership
Indian pay-TV network Disney Star has confirmed that the first 57 matches of the ongoing 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) season have been viewed by 471.4 million people, setting a new record for any season of the Twenty20 cricket behemoth at the same stage.
The domestic linear TV broadcaster has revealed that 20.5 million new viewers tuned in for the competition’s sixth round of games, also known as ‘Rivalry Week’. The week-long initiative was created by Disney Star that saw teams from the north and south of India square off in marquee matchups. Specially tailored programming also was produced by the network, while content creators from Meta were also hosted by Disney Star to increase fan engagement.
The seven Rivalry Week games all crossed a peak concurrency viewership of 30 million, with the highest being the 47 million that tuned in to watch the Mumbai Indians’ victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore. Out of the season’s first 57 matches, a total of 36 have now surpassed a peak concurrent viewership of 30 million.
Disney Star also witnessed a year-over-year (YoY) growth of more than 44 per cent in weekly ratings for week six, compared to last year’s edition.
The network is now preparing to host a series of initiatives around the ‘Race to the Playoffs’ theme, with five teams still in contention to qualify for the playoffs.
SportsPro says…
Disney Star’s figures comes days after the IPL’s digital rights partner Viacom18 revealed that the season’s first five weeks had garnered more than 13 billion video views on JioCinema free streams.
The record viewership for the season so far will justify its decision to splash out I₹23,575 crore (US$3.02 billion) for the competition’s domestic TV broadcast rights. The broadcaster also decided to show select games free-to-air (FTA) for the first time, with this move to further fuel viewership for its coverage.
Its massive audiences may lead to increased advertising revenue for the network, with a report from Exchange4Media detailing its intention to charge up to I₹24 lakh (US$29 million) for a ten-second ad spot during its playoff coverage.
With the closing stages of the competition to come, the broadcaster will be confident of seeing viewership grow even further.
