The closing matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL) may see a telecast on Hindi mass entertainment channel Star Plus as the broadcaster looks for ways to boost the tournament’s reach on TV, which has dipped from the previous year.A highly-placed source in Star India said discussions are on and the “bosses have almost decided” to run the knockout, semi-finals and final matches of IPL on mass channels.
“We stated that we will reach 700 million viewers via TV and digital (Hotstar) this IPL. While Hotstar reach is great, on TV, despite being aired on 10 channels, reach is not good enough. Especially in the Hindi speaking markets, where earlier rights holder (Sony) had put the matches on Hindi movie channel, it is 15-20% lower,” said the source on condition of anonymity.
According to the source, the bosses chose Star Plus over Star Gold.
Star India had won the global media rights of IPL for five years for Rs 16,347.5 crore. Star India managing director Sanjay Gupta had told ET that Sony (previous rights holder) “never saw the power of localisation” and that Star will localise IPL in six different languages and reach 700 million viewers.
However, even after four weeks, the all-India reach of IPL on TV continues to be 2% lower than last year’s, while in the Hindi-speaking markets, it is 16.7% lower for similar number of matches. As per BARC viewership data sourced from subscribers, in cable and satellite homes in the All-India market, after four weeks, IPL 2018’s reach has been 359.5 million homes, despite being on 10 channels, compared with the previous year’s 366.1 million. In the Hindi-speaking markets, the reach this year is at 209.9 million, compared with 251.8 million last year.
Reach is defined as the number of individuals who viewed the event for at least one minute. On an overall ratings (impressions) level, this year is slightly higher on the back of more number of primetime matches, and return of Chennai Super Kings, a popular team.
Email queries to Gupta and Star India remained unanswered as of press time on Thursday.