Star India is celebrating a 13% rise in ratings for the opening weekend of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019, reaching 219 million TV viewers, according to BARC India data.
The official broadcaster for the popular T20 cricket league said the reach in the Hindi speaking markets (HSM) on the opening day grew by 30% to 79 million on the opening day, compared to 60 million a year ago. In the South of the country, reach was up by 20% for the match between Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
The growth in reach has been attributed to its regionalisation strategy. Star India has added Marathi and Malayalam feeds this year, adding to English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali that were already offered. The network is broadcasting matches on recently launched Star Sports Bangla, along with its Tamil, Kannada and Telugu channels.
In total, Star is broadcasting the tournament across 24 channels, with over 100 experts from around the globe providing its IPL 2019commentary and analysis.
“The opening weekend was really strong. We are particularly excited because IPL 2019 has already crossed the viewership numbers we did last year at the beginning of the tournament. The investments made this year including a customised family feed on Star Gold, regional sports channels launch and strong marketing campaign has worked for us," said Gautam Thakar, chief executive, Star Sports.
“The localisation strategy is working well for us. This could be our biggest IPL ever because 2018 was our first year hosting the league which has helped us learn valuable lessons," he added.
Star’s video streaming platform Hotstar has gained an online audience of 135 million over the first four IPL matches.
The growth in reach has been attributed to its regionalisation strategy. Star India has added Marathi and Malayalam feeds this year, adding to English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali that were already offered. The network is broadcasting matches on recently launched Star Sports Bangla, along with its Tamil, Kannada and Telugu channels.
In total, Star is broadcasting the tournament across 24 channels, with over 100 experts from around the globe providing its IPL 2019commentary and analysis.
“The opening weekend was really strong. We are particularly excited because IPL 2019 has already crossed the viewership numbers we did last year at the beginning of the tournament. The investments made this year including a customised family feed on Star Gold, regional sports channels launch and strong marketing campaign has worked for us," said Gautam Thakar, chief executive, Star Sports.
“The localisation strategy is working well for us. This could be our biggest IPL ever because 2018 was our first year hosting the league which has helped us learn valuable lessons," he added.
Star’s video streaming platform Hotstar has gained an online audience of 135 million over the first four IPL matches.
