Hotstar registers viewership of 267 million in first three weeks of IPL

After being described as most viewed video-streaming platform in the world with over 300 million monthly active users (MAU) by the company's chairman Uday Shankar, Hotstar has come out with staggering viewerships number for last three weeks of IPL 2019, which began on March 23.

To watch the 12th edition of the T20 tournament, around 267 million viewers had logged on to its video-streaming app platform, said Hotstar in a press statement.

The viewership is notably higher than the last year figure when about 202 million people watched the entire season of the tournament.

On March 28, Hotstar claimed to set a viewership record of 12.7 million during RCB Vs MI match, it added.

In February, Hotstar had bettered its own record of viewership in Twenty20 International between India and New Zealand. Hotstar, broke its previous record viewers 10.3 million with 11.2 million during T20 game between both the nations.

The numbers in just three weeks signify Hotstar’s immense reach and scale, as well as our technological ability to deliver an uninterrupted, immersive cricket watching experience for consumers, said Varun Narang, chief product officer, Hotstar. The video-streaming platform aims to achieve a viewership of 300 million for the T20 matches.

Recently, to engage more viewers on the platform, it introduced a live comments feature, which allows viewers to share their thoughts during the live match with friends.

Last week, during an investor meeting, Uday Shankar revealed that his company contributes a 65 per cent share of the sports viewership in India.

Hotstar, as per a Kalagato report, is number one over-the-top (OTT) player with over 40 per cent of market share active users on its platform.

Hotstar has been ruling the OTT space ever since its arrival in 2015. In the OTT space, it competes with players such as Jio TV, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Zee5 and AltBalaji among many others.