Television viewership soared to an all-time high as the Indian team lifted the World Cup in an epic win against Sri Lanka in Mumbai, yesterday.
According to data with aMap, an overnight television audience measurement agency, the match posted an average rating of 13.6 television rating points (TRPs), nearly double the 7.4 TRPs recorded during the Chennai Super Kings-Mumbai Indians match in the final of the Indian Premier League (IPL-3) last year. TRPs refer to the percentage of viewers who watched the match for a stipulated time.
“Viewership increased almost four times yesterday.Until the quarter-final India's matches had an average rating of 3.7. The quarter-final saw it increase to 5, semi-finals 11 and yesterday’s win made it 13.6,” informed Jiniti Shah, vice-president, aMap.
The average time spent by viewers watching the finals stood at a whopping 187 minutes, which indicates a high level of involvement especially for a 50-over format match.
Punitha Arumugam, group CEO, Madison Media, said, “The ratings are phenomenal. As we can see from data recorded for previous matches, TAM ratings are almost double than those provided by aMap. Peak ratings for the finals would then translate to around 44-45 TRPs on TAM which means one out of every two urban Indians watched the match on Saturday.” Most media agencies refer to TAM data for an exhaustive analysis.
The India-Sri Lanka match reported peak ratings of 21.44 TRPs. The viewership numbers recorded for the finals are higher than that for any IPL or World Cup match till date.
| TOP MATCHES AVERAGE RATINGS | |
| Match |
TRPs
|
| India matches before quarter-finals | 3.7 |
| India vs England | 6.4 |
| India vs Australia | 6.5 |
| India vs Pakistan | 11.7 |
| India vs Sri Lanka | 13.6 |
| The data are for all viewers aged above four in cable and satellite homes in India for Star Cricket, Star Sports and DD National Source : aMap | |
The India-Pakistan semi-finals played out in Mohali on March 30 had previously secured record viewership numbers for any event in television in a long time, said industry experts.
The official broadcaster, ESPN Star Sports (ESS), had raised ad rates for 10 second slots during the finals to Rs 24 lakh from the Rs 18-22 lakh it had charged for the semi-finals after India’s phenomenal win in Mohali. Ad rates increased six to seven times for the finals from the Rs 3.5 lakh to Rs 4 lakh ESS had charged advertisers for the league and quarter final matches. The India-Pakistan match registered an average rating of 11.74 TRP on aMap and of 22.07 TRPs on TAM.
In recent times in the entertainment genre, Kaun Banega Crorepati-4, hosted by Amitabh Bachchan, posted record TV ratings of 5.5 in its final episode last year (aMap data). The closing episode had a peak rating of 7.4. A show with a TRP of four to five is considered a hit today due to the increase in the number of channels and viewership fragmentation.
