IPL: Tournament Opener Creates Record in Viewership
The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India has released the viewership statistics for September 19-25, revealing that the first match of IPL 13, between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, created a record in viewership. According to BARC report, the match was viewed by 158 million people, a 21% spike, as compared to the viewership in 2019. Reportedly, the overall viewing time also has touched new heights with 11.2 billion viewing minutes, which is a whopping 65% higher than the 2019 edition. In TV channels, Star Sports 1 Hindi had a viewership of 1.2 billion impressions followed by Star Utsav and Star Plus. Particularly in the sports genre, Star Sports group overpowered all the other sports channels with a combined viewer impression of 1.9 billion impressions. Earlier, BCCI secretary, Jay Shah, had stated that IPL received highest ever opening day viewership for any sporting league in any country.