The platform, which is streaming the tournament for free to all mobile users, has been setting new peak concurrency records during the tournament. Buoyed by the response, the platform will also stream the upcoming Pro Kabaddi League for free to all mobile users.
During the India vs South Africa match on November 5, the platform attracted 44 million peak concurrent users. Prior to that, India’s matches against New Zealand and Pakistan had peak concurrent users of 43 million and 35 million, respectively.
Earlier, JioCinema had set a streaming record with the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 final match between the Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings drawing 32 million concurrent users. JioCinema had streamed the IPL free to all internet users. Media experts have opined that the growth in digital viewership is on account of free streaming coupled with growing smartphone penetration and mobile data usage. While the peak concurrency on digital has seen a surge, Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data for the All India 2+ audience suggests that the India vs New Zealand match on October 22 had 80 million peak concurrent viewers on TV across Disney Star channels and Doordarshan.
Previously, the India vs Pakistan match had a peak concurrency of 75.5 million viewers. In fact, all the India matches had a peak concurrency of over 50 million on television until November 9.
The latest BARC data as of November 10 states that the cumulative reach for the first 42 matches on Disney Star channels has dropped 8% to 343 million compared to the previous edition in 2019 for the same number of matches. The television rating (TVR), which is a combination of reach and time spent, shrank 19% to 1.74, as per the BARC data for the All India Male-Female 2+ audience.
