With 22% viewers via Hotstar, IPL 2018 turns most watched edition in opening week

If you are an Indian Premier League (IPL) fan and watch it on Hotstar, then you are amongst the 82.4 million viewers who made IPL 2018--the most-watched edition of the league as far as the opening week is concerned.

In its latest report, broadcaster Star India, which won the rights of the cricket league for five years said that a total of 371 million viewers tuned in to watch the Vivo IPL during the inaugural week between April 7 and 13. This includes viewership across the 10 channels of Star India as well as Hotstar.

The total viewership on television stood at 288.4 million, while 82.4 million viewers watched games on Hotstar.

Television reach for the opening week stood at 288.4 million viewers driven by 30 per cent increase in reach in South. Live streaming platform Hotstar registered the aforementioned figures with a massive growth of 76 per cent versus last year, the report added.

The tournament is being broadcast on 10 television channels and live streamed on Hotstar with feeds in six languages - Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Bengali. The attribute for the soar in viewership goes to multi-lingual viewing experience provided by the broadcaster.

Last year, STAR India won the five years digital distribution rights for the IPL (Indian Premier League) cricket matches. It outstripped the 13 other companies with a bid of Rs 16,347.5 crore, and it will hold all the rights from 2018 to 2022.

Interestingly, Social media giant Facebook had also placed an unsuccessful $600 million bid to secure five years digital distribution rights.

Earlier, this month, Star India won the media right for India’s bilateral home series for the next five years period (April 2018 to March 2023) for about $940 million (Rs 6138 cr).

The development was first reported by Hindustan Times.