South Africa vs India: Port Elizabeth ODI helps Sony Ten 1 dominate the broadcast ratings

The ongoing India’s tour of South Africa has proven to be a big hit among the masses. This has been India’s first major overseas tour in the recent times. And it is perhaps because of this reason that the series has garnered so much attention. It is being widely followed and that has made Sony Ten 1 top the charts in the broadcast arena. As per the recent reports in the InsideSport, the fifth ODI of the six match ODI series between the two nations has managed to get the highest number of impressions.

In the report released by Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), the fifth ODI, which was played at Port Elizabeth, and the final ODI, which was played at Centurion have topped the ratings chart for the seventh week of the year of 2018. This, in essence, has made the Sony Ten 1, Sony Ten 3 and Doordarshan Sports hold the top three positions among sports broadcasters top five list for that particular week.

Sony Ten 1, that airs the official broadcast of the tour, emerged as the most watched sports channel for the week. The time frame in consideration is Saturday, February 10, to Friday, February 16. During this time frame, the channel received a gross 347,741,000 impressions.

On the other hand, Sony Ten 3, the channel that airs the Hindi version of the matches, is ranked second in the list with 322,527,000 impressions. These two channels of the Sony Ten network are closely followed by the Doordarshan Sports (293,027,000 impressions). Doordarshan has bagged the rights for the simulcast of the matches.

Other channels behind by a serious margin

The international cricket action between India and South Africa has clearly made the gap between the Sony Ten networks and the other channels wider. Star Sports 1 is placed at number five with has registered a mere 39,113,000 impressions, which is more than 80% short of Sony Ten 1 in the top position.

Talking specifically about the fifth ODI between the Proteas and team India, it became the most-watched sports programme for the week on Sony Ten 3 with 7,548,000 impressions, with its simulcast on DD Sports (6,970,000) and Sony Ten 1 (6,760,000) being in the third and fourth positions respectively.

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