MUMBAI: The year 2008 was the beginning of a new era for sports in India with the launch of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Statistics show that 93 per cent of all sports viewers in 2018 watched cricket content and a report by Duff & Phelps pegged the brand valuation of IPL in 2018 at $ 6.3 billion.

The report traces the evolution of each IPL team brand from the year 2014 to 2018. Mumbai Indians has maintained its top spot with its 2018 value at $113 million. It is followed by Kolkata Knight Riders at the second spot with $104 million in brand value. Royal Challengers Bangalore, Chennai Super Kings, Sun Risers Hyderabad, Delhi Dare Devils, Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals trailed with $98 million, $98 million, $70 million, $52 million, $52 million and $43 million respectively.

According to a Broadcast Audience Research Council of India report, the top two most-watched ODI matches between 2016 and 2018 were played between India and Pakistan. It clocked 12.3 billion impressions in 2018 despite the absence of international tournaments in the year. It also stated that cricket programming was up by 79 per cent in 2018 as against the year 2016, with over 89,000 hours. Talking about the ads, it observed a growth of 14 per cent across all cricket content from 2016 to 2018.

In 2016, viewership was dominated by T20 matches, whereas in 2017, One Day match dominated. Also, sports viewership year-on-year has gone up in the 2016-2018 period. From 43 billion impressions in 2016 the viewership has gone up to 51 billion impressions, growing at a CAGR of nine per cent. Additionally, the last three years have seen a steady increase in cricket content on sports channels.

Women viewers make up 48 per cent of all cricket viewers, up from 295 million in 2016 to 342 million in 2018. The Women’s World Cup final between India and England had a viewership of 39 million impressions. Considering the overall scenario, 50 per cent of IPL viewers is less than 30 years of age and youth (15-30-year olds) still dominate cricket viewership with 35 per cent of live cricket viewership coming from this audience.

Furthermore, in 2019, IPL clocked in 1.53 billion impressions minus the final match viewership. According to BARC data, the first three games of IPL 2019 witnessed a 31 per cent surge in viewership as compared to the last year. So when it comes to India, the wave for regional languages is expected to grow. Last year, Star India aired the IPL final in eight languages across 17 channels.

According to the BARC data analysed by Insidesport.co, 22 per cent of the viewership for IPL has come from regional language feeds.