Disney Star sees 47% jump in consumption for opening IPL match, TV rating rises 29%

The broadcaster said in a statement it clocked a total of 870 crore minutes of consumption on TV for the opening match between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings on March 31. Fourteen core viewers tuned in for the live broadcast on the opening day, which included the opening ceremony with 13 crore viewers.

“The massive growth in viewing time is testament to the success of our campaign, focus on building virtues of Star Sports’ broadcast, continuing dominance of linear Television as the preferred platform for uninterrupted viewing of live Cricket and most of all, the deep relationship we share with Cricket fans,” said Sanjog Gupta, Head – Sports, Disney Star.

Disney Star said citing BARC data it saw a sharp 29% growth in TVR compared to the previous IPL edition.

IPL’s tv and digital streaming rights were picked up by two separate companies for the first time this year.

Viacom is offering free streaming of IPL 2023 on its OTT JioCinema, after Reliance picked the lion’s share of IPL broadcasting rights (for 2023-2027) for a total of Rs 23,758 crore. Disney Star bagged the TV rights for the Indian subcontinent, paying Rs 23,575 crore. This is for the first time that two companies are broadcasting the matches in India and other regions on separate platforms.

Earlier, Disney Hotstar used to stream the matches.Viacom18 said last week that over 6 crore unique viewers tuned-in for the Gujarat Titans vs Chennai Super Kings fixture which achieved a peak concurrency of over 1.6 crore on JioCinema. The total match views on Day 1 on JioCinema touched 50 crore, it added.

Disney Star said over 20 crore viewers watched the build-up programming for TATA IPL 2023 even before the tournament began on Friday.

“With the tournament expected to provide many thrilling moments, twists, and turns, Star Sports is optimistic that the ‘Shor’ (cheer) will continue as fans enjoy the action on television. With a host of exclusive surround programming and technology innovations, the broadcaster is setting a new precedent in how the marquee tournament is watched,” it added.