MUMBAI: The VIVO IPL 2018 Retention event, broadcast for the first time in its 10-year history, had cricket lovers riveted across television sets and mobile devices and set social media abuzz with mentions and conversations that came close to rivalling those of full-fledged T20 India matches.

Star India’s presentation of the VIVO IPL Retention event was viewed by a massive, never-before audience of 8.1 million across both TV & digital. As per BARC data (Source : BARC 2+ U+R) 4.1 million TV viewers watched the event across the Star Sports Network from 7-8 p.m. on 4th January and as Star reported 4 million watched the event  on Hotstar.  

On social media, the event dominated conversations across platforms with 35k mentions making the VIVO IPL Retention day comparable to the chatter during a T20 match. It was trending #1 in India on Twitter in no time at all.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India at Chief Executive Officer, Rahul Johri said, “The discovery and nurturing of great cricketing talent and developing the cricketing infrastructure throughout the country, are important pillars of our mission at BCCI. Therefore, a quantum increase in the growth and popularity of the VIVO IPL 2018 would immensely scale up deliveries on those important fronts. We are delighted that with the transformative technology and the might of TV and digital combined, the VIVO IPL 2018 seems poised to be bigger than ever before.”

Star India - Managing Director, Sanjay Gupta said, “The unprecedented response to the retention event across TV and digital is early proof of what Star’s scale and Hotstar’s technology possibilities can accomplish. By offering the VIVO IPL to cricket fans lovers through both, the Star Sports network and Hotstar, Star India will be with the consumer at every viewing opportunity, unleashing enormous convenience and richness of content for the consumer and the advertiser.”

From the hitherto two-month series, Star will grow the VIVO IPL into a 5-month extravaganza of viewing delight of cricketing action and glorious entertainment, and the IPL Retention was just the first beginning of the great things to come.

Star will use its technology prowess to power unique and first-of-their-kind viewing experiences by enabling first-time-live-on-digital, check-ins and live scorecards on handhelds for truly immersive engagement of consumers. 

The Star network will make the VIVO IPL resonate even more closely with cricket lovers across major regional markets in the country. Star will make it a deeply local experience by adding four more languages - Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Bengali -- which will allow cricket lovers in various regional markets to enjoy their favourite passion sport in their first language.

On Star, the VIVO IPL 2018, to be aired in as many as 6 languages on 10 star sports channels and Hotstar will reach its biggest audience ever.