The Indian Premier League’s viewership has grown by leaps and bounds on digital, according to data provided by the official digital broadcaster, Hotstar.
The over-the-top (OTT) platform from STAR India registered a unique reach (number of unique viewers engaging with the IPL on Hotstar) of 66 million for the first 12 days, from April 5 to April 17. This is already 66 per cent of the unique reach registered for the IPL on Hotstar for the duration of the tournament in 2016. The 2017 final is scheduled on May 21.
Last year, the IPL registered 100 million viewers in unique reach across all matches. This year, however, it seems like 100 million unique reach might be crossed well before the mid-point of this season.
Hotstar’s reach among the 15+ years males — a prime slot for advertisers — were 36.4 million viewers from April 5 to April 14 (first 13 matches). The reach via television was 34.9 million for the same period, according to BARC data provided by a broadcaster. On HD channels on TV, IPL’s reach was just under a million in the first two weeks, according to BARC.
The digital platform also scores more when it comes to average time spent. On TV, the IPL saw a marginal dip in average time spent, thanks to the addition of afternoon matches in the second week (which see up to 40 per cent lower viewership when compared to prime-time matches). Average time spent per viewer on Hotstar rose from 41 minutes in week 1 to 63 minutes in week 2. On TV, the average time spent decreased from 72 minutes in week one to 67 minutes in week 2.
A major achievement for Hotstar has been in concurrency numbers, or the number of viewers watching a tournament at the same time. Ajit Mohan, CEO–digital, STAR India, says: “From 99,000 for the whole tournament last year, we have seen match concurrency rise to 915,000 in April 5 to April 17. That’s almost a 10-time increase in the first two weeks of the tournament.
In fact, peak concurrency so far this year has been 1.8 million and we’re only in the initial stages of the tournament.”The growth was due to multiple factors. While the adaptation of digital as a primary screen has been happening over the past couple of year among certain demographic groups, Mohan says the innovations introduced by Hotstar this year have also helped. “Now viewers can actually see a graph of the number of people watching the match at any point. The graph highlights the peak engagement points so far. And by simply tapping on one of these, viewer can see what was happening in the match back then. It’s a good opportunity for advertisers also to keep track of engagement real time.”
This year, the OTT service from STAR India had set itself a target of Rs 200 crore in advertising and sponsorship revenues from the IPL. This was met with some scepticism as demonetisation was expected to have some impact on Hotstar’s ad-sales prospects. While there hasn’t been a massive spike in the number of brands coming to advertise, those partnering with the platform have shown more confidence in terms of monetary commitments.
“The IPL on Hotstar has six marquee sponsors and nearly 25 advertisers,” says a media planner. “This are probably a couple of sponsors and three to four advertisers more than last year. However, from what we’ve seen, the bulk of Rs 15 crore and more commitments has increased.”
Sponsors on Hotstar for the IPL include Vivo, Maruti Suzuki, Reliance Jio, and Patanjali Ayurved. Advertisers include Vodafone (also an on-ground sponsor of the tournament as well as on TV), United Breweries, Make My Trip, Loreal India, Kotak Mahindra, Hero Motocorp and Whirpool.