Tuesday, October 18, 2022

After IPL slip, cricket finds its footing on TV once again

After a worrying drop in viewership during the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Asia Cup and India’s bilateral matches with Australia and South Africa, cricket has found its foot on television.

According to BARC data, both the Asia Cup 2022 and the Australia tour had 13% more viewers than similar series in the past, while the South Africa series had 30% more viewers than both teams in June 2022.

Experts said the fatigue had started after three seasons of the IPL were squeezed between 2020 and 2022. As a result, according to BARC data, there was a 30-35% drop in IPL viewership in the initial weeks of this year.

Naysayers said it marks the demise of linear television as a medium and digital is the way forward, even as the cost of cricket broadcasting rights continues to rise. But the broadcasters remained positive. Sanjog Gupta, head of sports at Disney Star, said, “We worked towards re-establishing the story about cricket, because there was a lot of fatigue, almost back-to-back cricket, that was happening.”

When sporting events, including a lot of cricket, resumed, as countries began easing their COVID-19 protocols, more people went out than ever before. Various reports, including Google’s Mobility Report, showed that more people than ever were out of home, either on the go or in offices or on travel. Outdoor recreational activities increased.

According to industry experts, this impacted viewership, which dropped across genres between February and July. Gupta said, “Now that we are effectively returning to normal – with some obvious modifications – going back to the office and adjusting to the pre-Covid lifestyle, our relationship with TV will also return to normal. are happening, at least where sport is concerned,” Gupta said. “The TV is once again becoming the center piece in the living room, just as it used to be before the pandemic.”

Incidentally, a recent Ormax Media report found that 44% of Indian sports fans prefer to watch live sports only on TV, while another 36% use both traditional and digital media to watch live sports. It is only the remaining 20% ​​who are watching the game exclusively on digital.

Originally published at Pen 18

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