IPL 2020 becomes its most successful edition, sets a new record with 400 billion minutes of consumption

• The 13th edition of IPL has proved to be its most successful so far in terms of viewership.
• Star India has revealed that Dream11 IPL 2020 has set a viewership record with an overall consumption increase of 23%* versus 2019.
• Television viewership reached an outstanding 31.57 million.

Star India has revealed that Dream11 IPL 2020 has set a viewership record with an overall consumption increase of
23%* versus 2019. Television viewership reached an outstanding 31.57 million**.

Capitalizing on the regional appeal, five independent language channel offerings - Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bangla, and Kannada, contributed immensely to the increased viewership growth of Dream11 IPL 2020. The regional offering across languages has been received well by viewers and has increased the viewership by 28%# over last year.

“It’s the biggest IPL the nation has seen and the response from fans and advertisers has been stupendous. The record-breaking opening week gave us the ideal start and laid the foundation for a record breaking season. We are extremely delighted that this season has been the biggest ever in terms of viewership, engagement and ad sales. Enhanced story-telling, localisation, contextually relevant marketing and technology innovations formed the pillars of our offering. We are encouraged by the growth we have seen in southern markets driven by our regional feeds and higher consumption across demographics especially in rural markets and amongst kids,” said Sanjog Gupta, Head – Sports, Star India. “Season 13 witnessed some explosive matches which were aptly supplemented by innovative programming, world-class production - both remote and on-ground. This wouldn’t have been possible without the fantastic work done by the team at BCCI in staging the tournament under extenuating circumstances and seamless functioning from our teams inside the bio-secure bubbles in India and UAE,” he added.

The record-breaking start to the Dream11 IPL 2020 started with the campaign ‘Ek Saath Waali Baat’. The campaign aimed to uplift the mood of the nation by bringing people together for the biggest cricketing tournament of the year. Star Sports, India’s leading sports broadcaster – pulled out all stops to ensure viewers and fans are offered an unparalleled experience of the Dream11 IPL 2020 from the comfort of their homes. The season began with sold-out inventory, with 18 sponsors and 114 advertisers on board, setting an optimistic tone to a massively successful season ahead. Star Sports pulled off the telecast of one of the biggest sporting spectacles in 2020 in just six weeks during an
ongoing pandemic and a lot of uncertainties.

With fans enjoying the matches from the comfort of their homes, Star took it upon them to make sure fans of all ages and demographics were hooked to the 2020 edition. This resulted in women and kids registering impressive viewership growth of 24%* and 20%* respectively. Star India’s effort to offer unmatched engagement for its viewers with state-of-the-art product innovations such as surround in-stadia fan cheer, specialized broadcast feeds, and fan walls has received a great response and got fans closer to the game than ever before. Chapterisation of the tournament via themes such as Fan Week and Rivalry Week, along with a slate of programming including franchise shows continued to draw IPL aficionados throughout the tournament. The revamped Select Dugout this year continued to target core cricket viewers and also registered significant growth in consumption.

Footnote:
* Viewership defined in terms of Billion Minutes at All India 2+ (U+R) on like-like comparison basis i.e. ‘TV Only’ (Live matches only)
** Average Impressions for the entire tournament at All India 2+ (U+R) level on like-like comparison basis i.e. ‘TV Only’ (Live matches only)
***Coverage (i.e. Reach) at All India 2+ (U+R) on like-like comparison basis i.e. ‘TV Only’ (Live matches only)
# Viewership growth (Billion Minutes) in South at 2+ (U+R) on like-like comparison basis i.e. ‘TV Only’ (Live matches only)
Source: BARC