Sony's faith in the tournament appears to be paying off. The first match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Vijay Mallya’s Royal Challengers gave SET Max 8.21 television viewership rating (TVR) across the five metros and Hyderabad, according to TAM Media Research.
The two matches on April 19 registered TVRs of 4.97 and 5.58, respectively. Among the elite viewers in Mumbai and Delhi, the ratings were higher at 9.82, 4.91 and 5.96. According to TAM’s latest report, even at the all-India level, the first three matches garnered high TVRs of 7.2, 4.5 and 5, respectively.
Critics say these ratings are pedestrian in comparison to Kaun Banega Crorepati or Indian Idol, which averaged ratings of 13 and 11 during their heydays. But to be fair to IPL, such ratings are a thing of the past.
In all of 2007, the best on Indian television averaged five. One look at TAM’s top 10 confirms this. In fact IPL comes at a time when soap viewing is at an all-time low. The only exceptions last year were the T20 World Cup and the finals of some reality shows.
"The first three matches of IPL pulled in 18 million viewers. In comparison, the first three matches that India played during ICC World T20 cup drew close to 20 million viewers. So it's definitely a good start," says L V Krishnan, the head of TAM.
A recent survey conducted by Hansa Research for Starcom India, which studied close to 1,500 respondents in six cities, found that nine out of 10 people felt that Indian serials needed to change.
Forty-three per cent of the respondents said the content was boring and repetitive. "Pan India IPL is definitely the single best platform to reach out to youngsters in the SEC ABC category," says Anirban Das Blah, the chief executive officer of Globosport India.
Vodafone, the on-air presenting sponsor on Max is pleased. "We are satisfied with the response. It (IPL) has provided us an opportunity to gain quick exposure. Otherwise, it would have taken longer to reach the same number of eye-balls," says Harit Nagpal, director, marketing and new business, Vodafone.
So far, so good! But a good start does not guarantee good middle overs. Analysts expect ratings of the tournament, spanning nearly seven weeks, to fall during weekday matches. However, they also expect the figures to shoot up as the tournament enters the slog overs.
Image: Captain of IPL's Delhi Daredevils team Virender Sehwag (L) poses with Bollywood Actor Akshay Kumar,teammates and Pakistani cricketers Shoaib Malik (2-R) and Mohammad Asif (R) in New Delhi.
| Photograph: Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: It's not cricket, stupid! It's business!
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