According to TAM Media research, on Friday Shah Rukh Khan's Kolkata Knight Riders took on Vijay Mallya's Royal Challengers in DLF IPL's debut match in Bangalore, the official television broadcaster Sony Max delivered a television viewership rating (TVR) of 8.21 across six metros -- Delhi,Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. The elite viewership ratings (Mumbai and Delhi) were 9.82.
Analyst's said that these ratings prove that the league has kicked off to a > good start considering city teams is a new concept in India. To be sure, there is still a large gap between the IPL and the viewership ratings during the World Cup Twenty-20 matches which were held last year. But those matches were telecast in two channels Star Cricket as well as ESPN Sports. If the viewership numbers of just one channel is considered then the IPL numbers look pretty close to that of the World Cup. And remember the semi final and the final numbers of the new format is still long way off.
In the the World twenty20 was played last year, the combined TVRs of the two channels --ESPN Sports and Star Cricket--that aired the matches was 17.9 for the semi- finals (India v/s Australia), (ESPN had a TVR of 10.65 while Star Cricket had only 7.25) while the final between India and Pakistan delivered 21.4 TVRs (12.6 TVR on ESPN and 8.8 on Star Cricket).
"We promoted the DLF Indian Premier League as 'Manoranjan Ka Baap' and the ratings show that we have lived up to it. We expect the numbers to grow in the coming days. Considering it is almost a 7 week tournament there will be times when the viewership ratings may dip but there will certainly be
matches when the ratings will shoot up. Overall we estimate the ratings to grow," said Sneha Rajani, business head, Sony Max.
The Saturday match between Preity Zinta's Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Superkings, followed by Delhi Daredevils against Rajasthan Royals witnessed TVRs of 4.97 and 5.58 respectively.
