High IPL ratings make Sony Max most watched channel

Sony Max is the most watched television channel in India. Courtesy an unprecedented rise in popularity and viewership of Indian Premier League. Broadcast Audience Research Council of India, the official agency to determine TV viewership numbers, data for the April 8 to April 14 week reflects a 34% rise in TV viewership for the corresponding period of IPL nine. A rise to 2.31 crore average viewers per match from the 1.72 crore in year 2016.

This catapults Sony Max to the top position in the most watched Indian TV channels across all genres for week 15.

The Barc data, released on Thursday puts Sony in the No. 1 position with 142.95 crore impressions between 8 April and 14 April (week 15 of 2017). Tamil-language general entertainment channel Sun TV, with 124.75 crore impressions, is relegated to the second position after leading the viewership charts for the first 14 weeks of 2014.

Impressions, also known as television viewership in thousands (TVT), refer to the number of individuals in thousands of a target audience who viewed an event, averaged across minutes.

Sony Entertainment Television Network channels are the official broadcasters for the IPL. Sony Max, Sony Six (high definition and standard definition) and Sony ESPN (high definition and standard definition) are broadcasting the IPL 10 matches live.

The ten matches played during the week garnered 23.13 crore impressions across five channels— Sony Max, Sony Six, Sony Six HD, Sony ESPN and Sony ESPN HD. On an average, the ten matches recorded 23.1 impressions, a 34% jump from the year-ago period.

The match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians played on 12 April recorded highest viewership of 29.5 million impressions, followed by the match played on 9 April between Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians.

This boost will also be attributed to Team India’s continuous success in the past few series. That has created a sustained interest among Indian cricket lovers. There is also a significant rise in the in-stadia attendance during the IPL games this season. The stadiums are packed between 80-85% to the capacity during the first 13 matches, a 20% rise in comparison to the 60-65% attendance over the same period last year. The upswing in ticket sales is much better. Supreme Court reigning in the BCCI and State associations has curtailed the prevalent culture of free passes to get access to the matches. This in turn has significantly boosted the ticket sales.

The collective data for all the matches up to April 14 gives more boost to the host broadcaster. IPL this had a cumulative reach of 29.5 crore viewers across 13 matches, the highest ever cumulative reach across 10 years of IPL. This season has also registered a 41 per cent growth in time spent from 48 minutes to 67 minutes across the first 13 matches.

The viewership is up by 81 per cent over the corresponding period last year across 13 matches. The growth seen across the entire sports cluster (SONY SIX, SONY SIX HD, SONY ESPN, SONY ESPN HD) is 49 per cent over last year according to the data provided by broadcaster.

As per BARC ratings (All India 2+) the tournament for matches 4 to 13, between April 8 and 14, raked in 23.1 million impressions. It saw a 34 per cent growth compared to the previous season, which got 17.2 million impressions (All India 4+). The match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians on April 12 fetched the highest ratings of 29 million impressions.

Last week, IPL’s first three matches saw a significant growth of 40 per cent in impressions from the last season to the current one.