News and entertainment channels take a hit due to IPL's popularity

During the build-up to the tenth edition of the Indian Premier League, it seemed as though the tournament, compared to its previous edition, had lost its sheen, and the craze wasn’t just as it had always been. Much like every year, there was no news of people standing in queues for tickets.

Five weeks into the season, the league has registered 386 million views, which goes past last year’s 335 million for the first 43 matches. The ninth edition last year saw a reach of 361 million viewers for the entire tournament. The average views in the fifth week were 21.5 million, compared to 16.6 million for the same period last year.

IPL’s success on the TV has meant huge profits for Sony Max, the primary broadcaster. Ever since the inception of this season, Sony Max has been the numero uno channel in India across genres, getting the better off Sun TV, which is the topper otherwise. Max’s surge also means that the Bollywood movie genre saw viewership surge by 14 percent because Sony Max, along with IPL, also broadcasts Hindi movies.

Bollywood benefits from IPL

If you comparing genre viewership four weeks before and four weeks after the launch of the tenth season of IPL, Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) has produced data which shows that Hindi movies gained significantly from IPL’s telecast.

Apart from Sony Max, Sony Six (HD and SD) and Sony ESPN (HD and SD) also broadcast IPL. Viewership of Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) has gone down by six per cent, and news channels have seen huge, double-digit declines.

This only goes to prove that IPL has conquered the hearts of Indian fans and will continue doing so.