In comparison, 98 million viewers tuned in to watch the first 11 matches of the ICC CWC 2019, which was hosted by England. The male 15+ is a key target audience for advertisers who buy sponsorships and spot buys for cricket matches. NCCS is the new consumer classification system that has been adopted by BARC India for the purpose of TV audience measurement.
Media experts attribute the drop in TV viewership to free cricket streaming by Disney+ Hotstar, which is raking in record viewership. Disney+ Hotstar is streaming the ICC Men’s Cricket WC for free to mobile users. The event has returned to India after more than a decade.
“In real terms, the audiences for CWC’23 haven’t declined but have split between live linear broadcast on TV and live digital streaming on OTT. If we look at peak concurrent viewing for the India-Aus match, approximately 8.2 crore audiences have been split in a 70:30 ratio skewed to TV. The same could indicatively be 85:15 in favor of TV for CWC in 2019,” said TAM Media CEO LV Krishnan.
Disney+ Hotstar recently created a world record with a peak concurrency of 35 million for India vs. Pakistan match. The match had attracted 225 million viewers on the platform. Prior to that, JioCinema held the record for peak concurrency of 32 million for the Indian Premier League (IPL) final between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings.
EssenceMediacom South Asia CEO Navin Khemka said that cricket viewership is getting fragmented between TV and digital. “This year, the concurrency numbers, even for non-India matches, are also very high. So, the cricket viewership is fragmenting. In 2019, the digital reach was not that big,” he added.Khemka said that the combined TV and digital viewership of the ICC CWC 2023 will be higher compared to the previous edition. “The TV numbers are also decent considering the fragmentation in viewership,” he noted. BARC data also shows that the average television rating (TVR) for the first 11 matches is down 13% to 1.93 TVR compared to the previous edition in 2019. TVR is a combination of audience reach and time spent.
The India vs. Australia match was the most-watched game of the tournament with 4.77 TVR, while India vs. Afghanistan had a 3.41 TVR. The BARC data is for weeks 41 and 42 until October 13.
After the two India matches, the Sri Lanka vs. Pakistan match had the highest TVR of 1.67. The opening match between England and New Zealand had 1.4 TVR.
Disney Star, which holds both TV and digital rights to the ICC CWC 2023, is also airing the matches on the Star Sports network. The network is eyeing ad revenue between ₹2,000 to ₹2,500 crore from both TV and digital.
