TV cricket viewership at an all-time high

Over the last 15 months, cricket viewership has grown on television, after a worrying drop during the Indian Premier League (IPL) last year. Asia Cup, India’s bilateral series with both Australia and South Africa, and now the Border Gavaskar series, all have seen a marked improvement in viewership.

“Cricket viewership on TV continues to be robust. This test match is the third most watched bilateral test match in the last five years, only behind two India-England test matches, of which one was a day and night match,” Sanjog Gupta, head, sports at Disney Star told Mint.

The first test match of the ongoing 2023 Border-Gavaskar trophy was among the top five most-watched test matches since 2018, the data claims. The first test between India and Australia registered a 43% increase in the Average Minute Audience (7.3 million), compared with the first test between India and England played in 2021.

Marketing campaigns and programming have helped drive this growth, he said.

Gupta said that India-Pakistan match of ICC Women’s T20 World Cup is the second most-watched match, following the India-Australia final of the T20 World Cup. “Both these are events of stature. When such things come along, especially in live sports, it automatically lends itself to higher viewing.”

The company said it aired all the games of the Indian women’s team which it played live before the world cup and that potentially contributed to the increase in the viewership.

Gupta expects these ratings to remain till the IPL. “Sporting events are high on stature, and communal viewing and the immediacy factor making them ideal to watch on TV. Viewing on TV also allows fans to calibrate attention/involvement and manage distractions. This seamless, lean-back experience means that the average duration of viewing sessions on TV is longer than on smaller screens,” he said.

Last year, as per BARC subscriber data, both the Asia Cup 2022 as well as the India-Australia series had garnered about 13% more viewership than similar tournaments. The India-South Africa series saw an even bigger spurt of 30% from when the two played each other in June.

There was serious viewership fatigue in the IPL in 2022, with 30-35% fewer viewers in initial matches, as per the BARC data.