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IPL gets ‘biggest viewership’ as three T20Is and two ODIs between India and Australia have been sold out: CA
Star India Sports Head Sanjog Gupta is delighted with the success of the recently-concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) and said that it was the “biggest ever in terms of viewership, engagement and ad sales.”
“It’s the biggest IPL the nation has seen and the response from fans and advertisers has been stupendous. The record-breaking opening week gave us the ideal start and laid the foundation for a record-breaking season. We are extremely delighted that this season has been the biggest ever in terms of viewership, engagement and ad sales. “Enhanced story-telling, localisation, contextually relevant marketing and technology innovations formed the pillars of our offering. We are encouraged by the growth we have seen in southern markets driven by our regional feeds and higher consumption across demographics especially in rural markets and amongst kids,” he said in a statement.
From swashbuckling young talent, exciting clashes, to nail-biting double super overs in a single day, the 13th edition of the tournament was nothing short of electrifying. With fans enjoying matches from the comfort of their homes, IPL 2020 has set a viewership record with an overall consumption increase of 23 per cent versus 2019.
Capitalizing on the regional appeal, five independent language channel offerings — Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bangla, and Kannada — contributed immensely to the increased viewership growth of IPL 2020. The regional offering across languages has been received well by viewers and has increased the viewership by 28 per cent over last year.
Sanjog also said: “Season 13 witnessed some explosive matches which were aptly supplemented by innovative programming, world-class production — both remote and on-ground. This wouldn’t have been possible without the fantastic work done by the team at BCCI in staging the tournament under extenuating circumstances and seamless functioning from our teams inside the bio-secure bubbles in India and UAE.”
With fans enjoying the matches from the comfort of their homes, Star took it upon them to make sure fans of all ages and demographics were hooked to the 2020 edition. Star India’s effort to offer unmatched engagement for its viewers with state-of-the-art product innovations such as surround in-stadia fan cheer, specialized broadcast feeds, and fan walls has received a great response and got fans closer to the game than ever before.
Meanwhile, Cricket Australia (CA) on Friday informed that three T20Is and two ODIs between India and Australia have been sold out after tickets went on sale this morning. “The second and third ODIs at the SCG and Manuka Oval respectively have been exhausted while the Manuka Oval T20I and two SCG T20Is are sold out,” CA said in a release.
“Limited tickets to the first ODI on November 27 at the SCG remain, with approximately 1,900 public seats left. Both the SCG and Manuka Oval will be at 50 per cent capacity for series, with fans voting with their feet after ticket prices were frozen from the last time India came to Australia in 2018/19,” it added.
Anthony Everard, Cricket Australia’s Executive General Manager of Fan Engagement, said that it showed fans cannot wait for the men’s international season to begin. “The rivalry between the Australian and Indian men’s cricket teams is one of the greatest in international sport and this series is shaping up as an epic,” Everard said.
“It’s been fantastic to see so much interest in the ODI and T20I Series, with the high demand starting from yesterday with our pre-sale period offered to the Australian Cricket Family. It didn’t take long today for things to move quickly, with now just a couple of thousand tickets remaining for the first ODI on November 27 at the SCG,” he added.
Responding to the cricket fan’s excitement, James Allsopp, Cricket ACT CEO, stated that there was some genuine excitement building in Canberra ahead of the two T20Is. “It is fantastic to have such high-quality international cricket coming to the ACT this summer and I am not surprised that fans have acted so quickly to ensure they have a seat,” he said.
India’s tour of Australia will begin with three ODIs on November 27, 29, and December 2. The first T20I will also be played in Canberra on December 4 and the rest two on December 6 and 8 at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Also, the Indian side is set to play four Tests against Australia which will be a part of the Test Championship and the winner gets one step closer to the final, scheduled in June 2021.
