IPL 2019 week 1 had an historic opening with 283 million viewers

Star’s strategy of widening appeal of VIVO IPL across regions, languages, with focus on families and youth has resulted in a historical opening week in the tournaments 12th edition both in terms of reach and viewership. The high decibel marketing campaign ‘Game Banayega Name’, curated programming and a multi-city VIVO IPL Trophy Tour, contributed to making the opening week a grand success!

The inaugural week of the VIVO IPL 2019, recorded a historic opening with 283 million viewers tuning in across the country, which is 15 per cent higher than last year. Television viewership reached a phenomenal 33.1 million average impressions registering a growth of 28 per cent setting a viewership record in the history of the tournament. This viewership data is from BARC (TV+OOH) and only considered match hours.

Taking IPL to India: Regionalization fuels growth - HSM grew 32 per cent and South grew 19 per cent versus last year. This growth can be attributed to the massive regionalization efforts, as the tournament is being broadcast in 8 languages - English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali including Marathi and Malayalam on Sundays. Star has expanded the appeal for the tournament further inviting kids and family with a curated feed called Super Funday, telecast every Sunday on Star Gold. This contributed a massive growth of 41 per cent in viewership amongst kids versus last year.  

VIVO IPL 2019 on Star continues to have the best in class and largest congregation of commentators and experts for all kinds of fans including the core cricket aficionado who enjoyed the action on Star Sports Select with #SelectDugout.  The opening week is a historic first in many ways and the world’s toughest T20 tournament was enjoyed by all members of the family including children and women.

For the growth vs last year, comparison has been done with Star Channels excluding DD on TV versus TV+OOH of this year IPL Channel Bouquet in 2019 - Asianet Plus, Star Suvarna, STAR Suvarna HD, Jalsha Movies, Jalsha Movies HD, Star Maa Movies, STAR Maa Movies HD, STAR Gold HD,STAR Gold, STAR Pravah, STAR Sports 1,STAR Sports 1 Tamil, STAR Sports 1 Kannada, STAR Sports 1 Telugu, STAR Sports 1 Bangla, STAR Sports 2(v), STAR Sports 1 Hindi, STAR Sports 1 HD,STAR Sports 2 HD(v), STAR Sports 1 HD Hindi, STAR Sports Select 1 HD, STAR Sports Select 1 SD, STAR Vijay Super, Hungama.

The opening week of IPL sure has set the tone for an exciting summer of cricket coming up on Star.