IPL Trophy. (Photo Source: IPL/BCCI)
The IPL 2023 has been an exhilarating affair as fans have witnessed several edge-of-the-seat thrillers in the tournament so far. The ongoing season has witnessed breathtaking cricketing action, keeping viewers glued to their television screens every day. Courtesy of the action-packed season, IPL’s official broadcaster Disney Star has garnered the record highest viewership in the tournament’s history for the first 66 matches, according to data from Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India.
The first 66 games of IPL 2023 garnered a viewership of 48.2 crore on the Disney Star Network which is the highest ever for a single season IPL season, surpassing the previous highest registered in 2019, the media giant said citing BARC data.
According to a report in Economic Times, the on-year growth in weekly TVR stands at 43% for the seventh week. The overall TVR growth is 32% compared to the last edition after 66 games. Earlier last month, Disney Star claimed that they took just 29 matches to break the viewership record set in the entire 2022 edition.
In 29 matches, the TV viewership hit over 40 crore, while it recorded a growth of nearly 24% in TVR in comparison to the last edition, according to BARC data. Disney Star was in a battle with Viacom18 for the ongoing edition that won the digital rights for the T20 extravaganza. Moreover, the competition was tough as JioCinema is offering free streaming services on its platform.
Both Jio and Star have witnessed growth in viewership
Both companies roped in several cricket stars in a bid to bring maximum viewers on their respective platforms. Due to several new features offered on both platforms and their marketing strategies, IPL witnessed exponential growth in both television and digital platforms in 2023.
JioCinema recorded 2.5 crore concurrent viewers during the first qualifier match between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings. On the other hand, the highest viewership on Disney Star in the season so far was a peak concurrency of 5.6 crore for GT’s match against MS Dhoni-led CSK.
Furthermore, during week 7 of the tournament, four more games registered peak concurrency of greater than 3 cr on Disney Star’s network, taking the number of games with a peak concurrency of greater than 3 cr to 40 for IPL 2023 so far. The clash between CSK and KKR registered the highest peak concurrency of seventh week of 4.2 Cr, while the highest for the tournament was when CSK and GT clashed, as the peak concurrency touched 5.6 Cr.
